British Woman wanting to marry Saudi Man.

You can get married outside of Saudi; the only downside is that marriage would not be considered as legal in Saudi and you won't have any rights there including visas on the basis of marriage.   He will be able to go to KSA of course. 

Easiest place to get married is in your home country.  Marriages in other countries usually have residency requirements i.e. one or both of the parties must be resident there and other complications to deal with such as NOCs from your Embassies.

Thank you for your reply!

Let’s say we both live in Dubai married for 7 years but decide to now return to Saudi Arabia because we’re the legal age for Saudi men to marry foreigners. Would we have to register our marriage all over again? Would they find out that we’ve been married already?

You would have to do everything from scratch.  It's not about anyone finding out, it's about them acknowledging that you are married to begin with.

Xtang, are you a saudi? As from what i read, saudi man should get an approval..

Xtang, are you a saudi? From what i read, they need to get an approval.

A Saudi man needs to get approval for the marriage to be recognized and be considered as legal WITHIN KSA.  To get approval, the requirements are quite tough e.g. the man has to be at least 40 among other things.   What we are discussing on this thread is the possibility of getting married outside of KSA if you are not eligible for or can't get approval.

I don't see how my nationality has anything to do with the above.

even if a saudi man want to marry outside of KSA and he return back they will invistigate with him how did he marry withouth permission .. they have to have permission of marriage before getting involved ..this sure will be asked if he want to bring his wife here.. The best way is he must to have approval from the Government but the fact is hard and there are lots of conditions and not easy

Yes exactly.  You can get married but if you come back then you will have to either:

1) Go through investigation and explain the how / why of your marriage OR
2) Pretend that you are not married and ask for permission from scratch

XTang wrote:

Yes exactly.  You can get married but if you come back then you will have to either:

1) Go through investigation and explain the how / why of your marriage OR
2) Pretend that you are not married and ask for permission from scratch

Right

XTang wrote:

Yes exactly.  You can get married but if you come back then you will have to either:

1) Go through investigation and explain the how / why of your marriage OR
2) Pretend that you are not married and ask for permission from scratch

I really appreciate your helpful responses.

Could we not just get married Islamically and have a Nikkah only, instead of having to register our marriage in the UAE for example. Since he is Saudi citizen, I am afraid that even if we wanted to register our marriage in another country, they will see that he is Saudi and may ask for the approval from his government.

Also, if we get married Islamically first and then we go back to KSA because we now both meet the requirements to register our marriage there, will they not find out that he has already done a Nikkah with me??

The reason for registering marriage in the UAE is to be able to live there as a couple.  If you don't work then you would need to be married for him to sponsor you. If you work then your employer would sponsor you.  Also if a marriage is not registered, there would be difficulties in obtaining legal rights or even simple things like getting him visas to travel to, say the UK or other parts of the world as your husband (you don't need a visa but he would for many countries).  Finally, and it is not likely but still a risk, living under the same roof and not being legally married is a no-no in the GCC but enforcement only happens due to bad luck or other associated factors.

Other countries don't really care about marriage rules or permissions in Saudi.  However, in some of the GCC countries e.g. Bahrain, to register marriages, you need to provide an NOC or proof of civil status from your Embassy.  Which means, that in his case, he will not be able to get it.

And they may or may not find out.  But then again, what other option do you have?

My suggestion would be for you to get married in the UK.  Get the marriage deed legalized when moving to UAE as a couple (Ministry of foreign affairs and UAE Embassy in the UK).  No need to go to the Saudi Embassy then for anything.  Plus this option provides you the maximum protection in the case of any issue in the future.

XTang wrote:

The reason for registering marriage in the UAE is to be able to live there as a couple.  If you don't work then you would need to be married for him to sponsor you. If you work then your employer would sponsor you.  Also if a marriage is not registered, there would be difficulties in obtaining legal rights or even simple things like getting him visas to travel to, say the UK or other parts of the world as your husband (you don't need a visa but he would for many countries).  Finally, and it is not likely but still a risk, living under the same roof and not being legally married is a no-no in the GCC but enforcement only happens due to bad luck or other associated factors.

Other countries don't really care about marriage rules or permissions in Saudi.  However, in some of the GCC countries e.g. Bahrain, to register marriages, you need to provide an NOC or proof of civil status from your Embassy.  Which means, that in his case, he will not be able to get it.

And they may or may not find out.  But then again, what other option do you have?

Okay.. so then I think the UAE would be the safest option for us!

There is only so much one can do about this 🤦🏻‍♀️ Hopefully, this will be the better option for us or hopefully Saudi Arabia will decide to change these regulations Inshallah 🤦🏻‍♀️

Thanks a lot for your detailed replies!

Welcome.  Actually I updated my post to add a safer option.  Read above.

XTang wrote:

Welcome.  Actually I updated my post to add a safer option.  Read above.

Just saw it! Thanks a lot!

Hi,
I saw your message and had to reply. I am a saudi and teo of my sisters are married to foreigners. I have not heard of any rule like that? If you dont mind; can i share what you have to do:
Firstly, your husband to be has to acquire a permission to marry a foreigner from the ministry first. Its not difficult but they may ask questions and ask for some documents and so on....... they are not very difficult docs to submit.
Secondly, once he has acquired the correct paperwork then you have to go to the saudi embassy in the UK and submit your paperwork to be allowed to come saudi under your husband name.
I know plenty of people who have done that and shouldnt be a problem at all.
I just hope that this may be helpful inshalla. I wish you both best of luck

Another thing;
Getting permission for marriage is not as hard as your being told!
I wonder if the people giving those advises are actually living in KSA???
None the less; the ministry is quite open to hearing everyone out and wouldnt stop anyone from doing what they want to do. I just hope that its not an issue with your or his family as that is an important factor in saudi culture as its an integeral aspect of life here but that has nothing to do with minitry or government. Its a personal life style question. Its not that difficult as it has been portrait to be honestly? Not too distant in the past; one of my friends just got a marriage approval for russia! Approval was done within 3 weeks? He didnt even choose an actual person from there yet??? You see its not that unbelievably difficult? They just want to make sure that your serious (both of you) and once they are convinced then god bless you both!

If you require, any help for this just drop me a mail and i can get you someone who can expedite the whole process
Thanks

Can i have a help also? 😔

This forum is not a legal or government sanctioned entity.  The advice given here is based entirely on the experiences of the members and their opinions as a result of that.  Which means that perspectives can and will vary dramatically.

The thread was not about the ease or difficulty of approval to begin with and I stated that clearly in my comment earlier "What we are discussing on this thread is the possibility of getting married outside of KSA if you are not eligible for or can't get approval".  And all everyone commented was that the published requirements are tough.  There was no discussion on the process or how long it takes or anything at all like that.

It's good that your perspective is different from others and will help people in seeing and trying other possibilities.   However, there is no need to make comments such as "I wonder if the people giving those advises are actually living in KSA???".  This comes across as an unnecessary ego driven emotional response which doesn't serve any purpose.

And yes, it is easy to get approval if you know someone or someone is expediting the whole process.  Actually it's easy to do literally anything here really if that is the case.  But not everyone has such access  and I can also give many examples of Saudi friends of mine who are still waiting for permission after many years or those who have been refused multiple times for whatever reasons.   But there is no point to stating that as that is not the discussion topic in this thread - poster asked different question. 

At the end of the day, it's about opinions and everyone is welcome to state theirs no matter how different.  Let people pick what they want from it and whatever can help them.  No need to get uptight over something that you don't agree with.

Xtc4surfer wrote:

Another thing;
Getting permission for marriage is not as hard as your being told!
I wonder if the people giving those advises are actually living in KSA???
None the less; the ministry is quite open to hearing everyone out and wouldnt stop anyone from doing what they want to do. I just hope that its not an issue with your or his family as that is an important factor in saudi culture as its an integeral aspect of life here but that has nothing to do with minitry or government. Its a personal life style question. Its not that difficult as it has been portrait to be honestly? Not too distant in the past; one of my friends just got a marriage approval for russia! Approval was done within 3 weeks? He didnt even choose an actual person from there yet??? You see its not that unbelievably difficult? They just want to make sure that your serious (both of you) and once they are convinced then god bless you both!

If you require, any help for this just drop me a mail and i can get you someone who can expedite the whole process
Thanks

Oh wow! Thank you so much for your comment!! It’s made me feel so much better to also hear this from a Saudi citizens perspective.
My Saudi husband to be (Inshallah) was the one who shared this new system with me regarding the age limits for a foreigner and Saudi citizen to get married. However now to be honest, after what you have said, I am positive that things can go smoothly and hopefully there will be no objections within our process inshallah.

I appreciate your comment and help that you are offering me and I will surely ask if I need to

Thanks again.

Wish you all the best 

To Marry in the UAE you both have to be residents.  You can get an Imam to do a Nikkah only but it's expensive, around 10,000aed, and you have no legal rights.  If you are going to live in UAE wait until you both have residency and then get married there in the court. 

If you are from the UK it's best you get married there if you aren't getting permission.  The marriage will be legal everywhere but KSA and it will be easier for you to get legal copies of certificates in the furture.

There are 2 ways he can request permission in KSA.  He can ask to marry a foreigner who lives in KSA as long as you have residency there through your job.  Or, he can request permission to marry a foreigner outside of KSA.  If you do it without permission you are best off starting from scratch if you want to ever live in the KSA instead of going through the investigation process as I have heard it can be brutal.  The biggest problem with that is if you have children KSA may or may not recognize them as Saudi citizens if they were born before KSA recognizes the marriage.

Good luck!

Thank you for your response! I will definitely consider the different ways

If in case that you wanna come to Saudi to legalize your paper here, there CAN be 2 way. (If you want it to be fast)

1.) Better to work here then process your paper while the 2 of you are working. (With legal age to marry). You have to start from the SCRATCH, that as if you didn't get married before.
But;
2.) if you have kid/kids it will be a lot easier. And of course it's better that you are ALSO working here. And No matter what your age is. And the father can get his child as he/she is a Saudi Citizen.

We finished our paper less than 6 months without paying anyone inside. We don't know anyone from there too. We just did the process and gave them the needed requirements.

Hello,
What were your conditions? Is your husband Saudi? Are you from Europe? How old are you both? Are you living in Saudi?
Your post brings „hope“ to others.
Thanks!

I'm from Philippines, and my husband is a Saudi. All those requirements that I told you about are the requirements for them to marry a foreigner.

I'm now under my husbands name.

We are both 31.

Sorry for the broken messages.

I'm working and living in Saudi.

How to contact you? Could u please private massage me your email as i need some advice for the same issue.

Age Requirements Increased For Saudis Marrying Non-Saudis (40 For Men And 30 For Women) taraummomar.wordpress.com/2016/10/27/age-requirements-increased-for-saudis-marrying-non-saudis-40-for-men-and-30-for-women/

Hi Xtc4surfer  I want to contact you please but I don't know where exactly. But is really very important

Hey so you were 31 years old when requesting for the permission ? Or less than 31 yo that time ?
I also having that problem, I’m 23 and my Saudi fiancée 23
We heard a lot of issues that we need to wait until my Saudi fiancée become 30yo so he could marry a foreigner woman

dear I have the same problem, I’m an Iranian and got married in India, but KSA didn’t give me visa, now im pregnant, could u plz help me

Hi, i am sure that you will not have problems as long as you submit the complete documents needed by the government. Me and my husband didn’t face any issue regarding the age as he was 29 at that time and i am 26. We were told that a saudi guy must be 30 or 35 but we were lucky enough to got the approval from government in just a few months.

Hello,

Can you explain more about the process you did please?
Thanks.

So. He did not have to be 40?

It maybe in some cases that they allow this to happens. Or sometimes depends on the their mood. Sorry but that's the reality here. 🤭

We were both 31 at the time we submitted our documents...

Yes. We were 31 at that time. We have friend who actually applied for their marriage licence here in Saudi and they were told to wait until the male will be 30years old. But maybe in some cases. Like if you have already a baby...