The Validity of Marriage - Indonesian Marriage Law
International Recognition
Mixed-marriage couples married in Indonesia should pay attention to this issue, especially if they have married in Moslem ceremony. The Moslem Marriage Book is NOT accepted in several countries - for example, Netherlands. The immigration regulations in the Netherlands require a Certificate of Attestation from the Indonesian Civil Registry Office. This is the certificate that show that the marriage has been registered with the Indonesian Civil Registry Office in order to register at the Civil Registry Office in the Netherlands. You need to submit supporting documents such as your passports, visa, marriage books, and photographs (with groom on the right side).
Theoretically, this is may sounds odd. The Office of Religious Affairs and the Civil Registry Office are the Indonesian government institutions that have the authority to record your marriage. But, in actual practice, you will experience numerous legal difficulties iif you are not fully aware of the legal consequences of your actions.
If you go to the Surabaya Civil Registry Office, they will not issue a Certificate of Attestation based on the Moslem Marriage Book. They don’t even want to provide the letter of rejection either. They find Office of Religious Affairs has the same position as them, believing that they are not authorized to issue such certificate.
According to the Regional Autonomy Law of 2004, the regulation for civil registry and population services is the sole responsible of local municipal offices. So, the Surabaya Municipal offices is fully within its authority to consider that the Religious Affairs and Civil Registry take the same legal position.
Another matter that deserves attention is document legalization. Immigration-related documents require certifications or legalizations or authentications in order to be recognized internationally.
The legalization rules are different for each country. Not all information is provided clearly and regulations are not the same in every country. This conflicting information is typical of government bureaucracy all over the world. As we are aware, US rules specify that your certificate(s) should be less than a year old. As for the Netherlands regulations, the certificate(s) should be less than five years old. The process is usually complicated and in many cases a lack of time or expertise can cause delays and valuable time will be lost.
Indonesia is not a part of the Hague Convention, a group of nations joined to create a simplified method of legalizing documents for universal recognition. Therefore, you need an Embassy Legalization for your documents to be valid internationally.
As a non-member of the Hague Convention, Indonesian documents must fulfill certain requirements before the foreign embassy can legalize your documents. Indonesian documents should first pass the procedures at the related government institutions in Indonesia, such as Notary Public certification, Civil Registry, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and/or Ministry of Religion.
The Civil Registry office has a Mandatory Waiting Period of 10 working days from the date of filing. This waiting period may be waived for tourists presenting a guest registration form (Form A). [COLOR="#FF0000"]Islamic Marriage Certificates (Buku Nikah) issued by the Office of Religious Affairs (Kantor Urusan Agama) are legally valid in Indonesia and do not require registration with any other agency if you are going to live in Indonesia[/COLOR].
However, if you might move somewhere else in the future, get a marriage certificate issued by the Civil Registry and an officially certified translation right away (see below). All other Marriage Certificates will be issued by the Civil Registry usually on the same or next day. A sworn English translation of the marriage certificate should be obtained for use abroad. It may be necessary for the marriage certificate or translation to be registered by your Consular Agency. Or you may choose to have the sworn translation of the marriage certificate verified or a special translation made by the Consular Agency of your home country or the Consular Agency of your country of residence might prove useful.
I knew I read it somewhere that it was not so simple ... I am allmoust certan that my ebassy wil lroll out their eyes on only those two marriage books ! no mater wvwn if we have golden seal from president in there ! It is something what they are not familliar and AUTOMATICLY I will get rejected .. or they will redirect me here and there ...
Some A4 from goverment would be much more easier ...if it is possible to obtain !
