GETTING MARRIED IN MALAYSIA

We got married here in Malaysia and it was not an easy process. In 10 days you wont be able to do it. Once you have all certificates together from your home country you need them getting verified here in Malaysia. Then you have to get the local marriage certificate from the ministry of foreign affairs and then you have to go to ministry of internal affairs to get the marriage permission. After you have that you have to go to the registrar where you get an appointment for marriage and that needs to be done with a 3 weeks notice. So 10 days wont work. We are not moslems and maybe for moslems there is a short cut but honestly I doubt. And to get all paperwork together from our home countries was a lengthy process - took us about 3 month. You need a fresh birth certificate (not older than 3 month), you need a marriage certificate from your home country which says that you was never married and that you two are not related in first degree and if you was married before you need an notarized copy of your divorcement certificate. As my wife's country had no embassy here in Malaysia we had to get the papers apostilled by her embassy in Canberra, Australia. There is a lot of paperwork to collect and all documents needs to be double and tripple verified.

If your long term plan is to immigrate to the US I suggest your fiance check with US immigration regarding this question. I know of no reason that you can't get married here, and suspect there will be no issues with US immigration as long as one of you is a resident of Malaysia. It's a long story, but for some reason my ex-wife insisted that we marry in Thailand instead of Malaysia and US immigration refused to recognize the Thai certificate and we had to marry again in Malaysia. Their requirement at that time (20 years ago) was that at least one of us had to be a resident of Thailand to be married there.

ASTEG wrote:

We got married here in Malaysia and it was not an easy process. In 10 days you wont be able to do it. Once you have all certificates together from your home country you need them getting verified here in Malaysia. Then you have to get the local marriage certificate from the ministry of foreign affairs and then you have to go to ministry of internal affairs to get the marriage permission. After you have that you have to go to the registrar where you get an appointment for marriage and that needs to be done with a 3 weeks notice. So 10 days wont work. We are not moslems and maybe for moslems there is a short cut but honestly I doubt. And to get all paperwork together from our home countries was a lengthy process - took us about 3 month. You need a fresh birth certificate (not older than 3 month), you need a marriage certificate from your home country which says that you was never married and that you two are not related in first degree and if you was married before you need an notarized copy of your divorcement certificate. As my wife's country had no embassy here in Malaysia we had to get the papers apostilled by her embassy in Canberra, Australia. There is a lot of paperwork to collect and all documents needs to be double and tripple verified.

Maybe that's why my ex wanted to get married in Thailand first. That was a one day affair, but unfortunately not recognized by the US. I thought it was so she could divorced easier, I was her 4th husband and know that she had issues getting her 2nd marriage ended. Thus both her 3rd and 4th (to me) marriages were done in Thailand.

Thanks for the details mate. It seems like a hassle.  God I wish there was an easy way but i guess thats how it is here.anyway  I truly appreciate your help .plz do keep in touch .

Thank you so much for the info sir. well none of us is a resident of Malaysia. I am from Pakistan and she is an American. but is the marriage certificate of Malaysia recognized in the US ? I have to notarize it right?
warm regards

I do not think you have to notarized it - what you have to do is to register your marriage certificate with the US Embassy in Malaysia.

You don't have to do anything with the marriage certificate, just submit a copy of it when you apply for your US PR. But you're going to need a lot more than the marriage certificate to prove a genuine marriage. Emails, photos from holidays together, pictures of visiting each other's family and whatever you can come up with. I think we submitted 50 pages of evidence along with over 200 pictures with captions. All in a notebook with section dividers for each type.

You can consult with your embassy in KL as usually they know all the process & will help you .