Getting Married in Germany (All documents, time and money needed from Indonesia)

 Indonesian | English

Hi lovely readers,

In this blog I want to share my experience of getting married in Germany during the pandemic. So if you want to get married in Germany in the near future, you can read my blog until it is finished. I will be as detailed as possible about the time and documents needed to the cost to get married in Germany.

Disclaimer: My experiences are not the standard for the marriage procedures in Germany, because every city / county in Germany has different regulations.

My partner and I decided to get married after being together for about 3 years. The last time, we saw each other in September 2019 and never saw each other again until I flew to Germany in June 2021. In 2020, when the pandemic breaks out, we start looking for information about marriages in Germany and plan to get married there.

1. My partner made an appointment in Standesamt

    In February 2020, my partner made an appointment at the Civil Registration Office (Standesamt) of his residence. The purpose of his visit was to get information about what procedures and documents we need for a marriage in Germany, but it turned out that here all registered for the completeness of marriage documents. My partner was asked to fill his and my personal data completely into the form provided by a registrar (Standesbeamtin). Then the registrar handed over a paper with the list of documents we needed and explained each document. In addition, the registrar told us that she would take care of all our wedding matters until we got married later.

    The document is given as below, but I have censored the place and I already moved it to google docs, if you guys want to see clearly, I have the file in German, English and Indonesian. You can directly send a personal message to my instagram @qkincrev (for fast response) or drop your comment below ;)

Front page of the paper was given by Standesbeamtin

Back page of the paper was given by Standesbeamtin

    The required documents are divided into 2 parts, documents from my partner and documents from me. All required documents must be in ORIGINAL and translated into German by a sworn translator registered at the Civil Registration Office where we will register the marriage.

    Documents from my partner

    - Birth Certificate (Geburtenregister mit Hinweisteil)

     He also recently made it to the Civil Registration Office where he was born. He did this online and it costs 10 euros. The certificate finishes within a week. To get it, you can click here.

    - ID Card (gültiger Personalausweis vorab in Kopie)

       My partner only has a passport so only the passport and photocopy are handed over.

    - Kennenlerngeschichte

      We made "a book" about the beginning of our relationship and how we met to establish a relationship in detail, along with evidence ranging from photos, screenshots of chats and phone call histories, proof of flight and hotel bookings when we had a trip together, etc. We even designed the cover, table of contents and pages as good as possible. We have really gone the extra mile :D

Front page Kennenlerngeschichte

   Documents from me

     - Birth Certificate

      The birth certificate is not issued older than 6 months prior to applying for marriage registration and must be legalized at the German Embassy. To obtain legalization at the German Embassy, documents must be legalized at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

      - Certificate of residence

    The certificate of residence is not issued older than 3 months prior to applying for marriage registration. It need to be issued by Kelurahan (Indonesia's kinda district) and confirmed by Kecamatan (Indonesia's kinda county).

      - Valid Passport

        The copy of valid passport needs to officially certified of the German Embassy.

      - Certificate of marital status

       The certificate of marital status is not issued older than 6 months prior to applying for marriage registration and must be issued by Kantor Urusan Agama (Indonesia's kinda official Islam office; place where people with Islamic faith go for marriage). It also must be legalized at the German Embassy. To obtain legalization at the German Embassy, documents must be legalized at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The status with "free marriage status" cannot be accepted.

      - Certificate of earnings

        I made a list of my income from my first month of work, signed and stamped by the director of my company.

                

First page of Earnings certificate

Second page of Earnings certificate

      - Power of attorney letter

        This power of attorney is to authorize my partner (because I still lived in Indonesia that time) to register our marriage in Germany. We got this letter from the website of the Civil Registration Office and I had to sign it in front of the German embassy's officer where it was also legalized. Also I have to translated this letter into Indonesian by a sworn translator before signing it in front of the officer at the German Embassy.

First page of the power of attorney

Second page of the power of attorney

2. Extend my PASSPORT

    In September 2020, I renewed my passport because it will expire in March 2021. In order to apply for a visa must be at least valid 6 months before expiry. Besides Not the waiting period during the process of collecting marriage documents etc, so I started looking for the documents after I got a new passport.

    I applied the passport renewal queue at the Online Passport Registration Application (APAPO). I had to fill my personal data, available date and time and choose an immigration office near my home. For the reason that I worked in Bali, I chose the Immigration Office Class I TPI Denpasar. Unfortunately, I had to reschedule the appointment because I had a job that need to be done on the same day as my immigration schedule. So I had to cancel the appointment and make another one, but after I cancelled the appointment, I could not make any other appointment for the next month.

    A month later I made another appointment. I chosen the available time and date. After that, I came on the day and at the hour I chosen. I brought my old passport and e-KTP (Indonesia's kinda ID Card), and I also had my birth certificate and a photocopy of all documents with me, just in case the officer asks me. I applied for an e-passport, which cost Rp. 650,000. The reason I chosen the e-passport was because I heard that: the e-passport is easier for visa approval and you can also travel to Japan without a visa for 15 days.

    Time passed quite quick when renewing this passport. I went to the interview room, took biometric photos, got interviewed by the officer and paid the service. For the interview, the officer asked what is your passport for and your country destination. Also for the photo, we should not using contact lense or piercing. You can pay the passport service through bank or Tokopedia. Before you left, the officer gonna give you the date when the passport finished and you need to bring your proof of payment to get your new passport.

3. Collect all the requirement documents

    Birth certificate, certificate of residence and certificate of marital status were sought by both my parents because I lived in Bali to work while my ID card address in other province. In the collection of these documents is full of drama and a long process. The collection of this document was carried out at the end of October 2020.

- Birth certificate

  My old birth certificate does not contain my father's name, because when I was born, my father and mother were still religiously married and had not registered their marriage officially, beside that they currently belong to a different religion than before. They were asked to remarry based on the religion they now believe in, and after that I was able to get a certificate with my father's name on it. However, since the procedure for registering the marriage of my two parents is quite long, more than that I have to submit changing my birth certificate to the court, we are assisted by the Indonesian Civil Registration officer to obtain a second birth certificate with a note on the margin of my father's name. The process is quite long because they need to make my Excerpt of Child Acknowledgement Certificate first, then I can only get my second of birth certificate along with the margin note.

Excerpt of Child Acknowledgement Certificate

Excerpt of Second Birth Certificate

Margin note (in the back of the Second Birth Certificate)

    When this finished, another problem pops up. The German Embassy's website said that they cannot legalize documents issued in the form of ordinary white papers and electronic signatures, because the law in force in Germany does not contain provisions on the legalization of foreign electronic public documents. However, they can only issue consular certificates. The latest information about the Consular Embassy of Germany can be found here.

    Meanwhile my Second Birth Certificate came out in the form of regular white papers and electronic signatures due to new government regulations adjusting the pandemic situation. My parents and I insisted on the Local Civil Registration Office to make my Second Birth Certificate with old paper and using real signature of the Head of the Civil Registration Office. However, the rules have been updated and they can't make it as we asked. In fact they give us an attachment regarding the new government regulations.

Attachment of government regulations on Population Administration

   And then  I asked my partner to ask the officer about it by email. Standesbeamtin replied the next day and said that it was fine to use normal white papers and electronic signatures as long as my birth certificate was issued a maximum of 6 months before the marriage registration and obtaining a consular certificate. Then I printed out the email evidence at the German Embassy as proof.

- Cerificate of residence

  This letter needed to introduction letter from RT (Head of Neighborhood in Indonesia) and RW (Head of Hamlet in Indonesia), and then the urban village office is asked to produce this letter, and then the sub-district office confirms. It's pretty impetuous because it needs my signature. The process takes about 2 days.

Certificate of residence

- Certificate of marital status

   This letter makes the process quite length because the original procedure and what was requested at the Standesamt is different. Due to marriage, I need the N1 and N10 forms. For that, I need an introduction letter from the RT and the RW and then issued by the urban village office. Although the Standesamt required a certificate of marital status issued by the KUA. I was so upset and almost gave up, fortunately the head of the KUA in my village was so nice, so it was helped to be made.

Form N1

Form N10

Certificate of marital status

    After all the documents were collected, it turned out that the problem still existed. To legalize the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, I need to verify the signature sample, which is signed in the second birth certificate citation and status certificate on its website. And the two documents do not have signature samples in the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. In the end, I asked for manual sample signatures and stamp the head of Civil Registration Office and head of KUA.

Form submission of the sample signature of the head of the main office.

Signature Specimen Submission Form

4. Documents legalization

    After all the documents were collected, I sent them to Jakarta and asked my friends in Jakarta to help me to legalize my documents at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since I was still working in Bali. I made the letter of attorney so my friend can legalize my documents legally. This legalization procedure was carried out at the beginning of November 2020.

- Ministry of Law and Human Rights

  To apply for legalization in this ministry, first I need to register online here. I need to fill my personal data and the documents that need to be legalized along with the manual specimen signature and stamp. For the clearer instructions, please click here. After uploading, you will be asked to pay a legalization fee of Rp. 25,000/document. After payment, I got a confirmation that I have to wait for the process until it's done. It took 2 days and I got a notification that the legalization process was completed, so I immediately asked my friend to come to this ministry to bring my documents. The legalization is in the form of stickers, and this sticker needs be attached by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officer. Actually after the verification of documents is completed in this ministry, the sticker can be send the sticker of legalization to our address for free, because I did not know about it, so I asked my friend to come to get the sticker.

Legalization Sticker from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights

- Ministry of Foreign Affairs

  For the registration also through the application, but only for Android users. Considering I don't have an Android phone, I asked my partner to download the app and upload my files online through him. For the instructions, you can click here. The process and cost is the same as legalization in the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, except that I almost failed here because it turned out that my documents were laminated by both my parents before they were sent. By means of the legalization sticker has to be stuck directly onto the document, well the officer helped to remove the lamination off the documents and stuck the legalization stickers on it.

Legalization Sticker from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

- German Embassy

  Before the legalization is completed, I already made an appointment for legalization at the German Embassy in Jakarta as the appointment is not always available. I made an appointment and roughly calculate when is the right time to get the appointment according my legislation process as well. So I took 3 weeks after the legalization process started. For appointment schedule in German Embassy, click here.

    Further I need to translate the power of attorney from German to Indonesian to a sworn translator. I asked my friend to print my power of attorney and send it to the translator I had called before. I used the services of Dwi Nugraeni Soemarsono, cost around Rp. 525,000, - and finished about a week before the appointment at the German Embassy. For a list of german translators, check here.

     The legalization can actually be represented and for the signature of the power of attorney I can do at the German Consular in Bali, it's just that at that time I did not know and wanted to come to Jakarta to meet my friends who live in Jakarta.

For those of you who want to book a hotel around the German embassy in Jakarta can check the map below. Booking.com

 

On November 24th 2020, I flew to Jakarta and stayed at a hotel around the German Embassy. Before checking in I took my documents that had been translated to the translator house. The next day my appointment to go to the German Embassy, but I just checked for the translation paper typically in Germany the original and the translation are in stapler with head corner folded then stamped and got initial by the translator like the picture below. Although mine separated one by one.

The original document folded along with the translation that has been translated by the sworn translator then stapled, stamped and signed the initial by the translator.

    So an hour earlier I had to speed to the translator house and luckily she is so kind, willing to provide additional translations. After that I immediately hit the gas to the German Embassy and it was 10 minutes late and by chance the queue before me wasn't finished when I arrived. I still have to wait outside though. When it was my turn, I went in and checked the body at the security post and couldn't bring electronics like smartwatches, mobile phones and laptops. Everything was deposited in a locker near the security post. I just carried documents and money. Inside I waited a few minutes until my name was called. Then I handed over my documents. The officer told me about my Second Birth Certificate which used the usual white paper and they could only provide a consular certificate. However I explained that the Standesamt where I registered my marriage allowed it.

    After that I signed a power of attorney in front of the German Embassy officer and then I paid Rp. 1,730,000 for a consular certificate in the Second Birth Certificate Citation, legalization of Status Certificate, Power of Attorney and legalization of my passport copy.

Consular Certificate in The Second Birth Certificate

  

Legalization of Marital Status certificate

5. Sending documents to Germany

    After all the paperwork was completed, I scanned all the documents that I gonna send to Germany in order to register the marriage there I scanned it just in case the documents didn't arrive in my partner's hands, so I still have a copy of it. At the hand of original documents, I used the trust-worthy company, DHL. Based on my experience, it is safe and reliable. It's expensive tho, but it's worth the service.

    For this delivery I paid Rp. 800,000 and 2 days after received by my partner. 

For the management of marriage documents in Indonesia has been completed. For the continuation of the management of marriage documents in Germany by my partner can click here ;)

Stay safe and have a great day, lovely readers!

    Booking.com