Registration of Marriage in the Population Information System
If you are a Finnish citizen and you get married abroad, you must notify the marriage to the Finnish Population System.
Ask the person conducting the marriage, what documents are needed when the ceremony is performed before a foreign public authority. A Finnish certificate of no impediment can be ordered in multiple languages from the (Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)Digital and Population Data Agency(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) in your municipality of residence. Documents that are used abroad, must be legalised.
Some priests working among expatriate Finns, who are employed by Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (list in Finnish)(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window), have the right to conduct marriages abroad.
You cannot get married at an embassy of Finland.
Notify the marriage to the Digital and Population Data Agency
When a Finnish citizen gets married outside Finland(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) it must be notified to the Local Register Office. You can also leave the notification at a Finnish embassy or send it there to be posted to the Digital and Population Data Agency.
The original marriage certificate or a copy of it, authenticated at the mission of Finland, must be appended to the notification. The document must be legalised and if it has been issued in some other language than Finnish, Swedish or English, an authorised translation in one of these languages must be provided. Translations made abroad must be legalised. Translations made by an authorised translator in Finland(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) are valid as such.
An Apostille stamp is not required for a marriage certificate, which is issued by an EU country authority and a translation of the certificate is not needed if a multilingual standard form(Link to another website.) is appended to the document.
Form: Notification - Marriage abroad (pdf)(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)
Registration in South Africa
Registering is done by the Finnish Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV). Primarily contact the DVV directly about the registration. See the directions from their website(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window).
If you cannot register directly to the DVV, the registration documents can be submitted via the Embassy in Pretoria. There will be a fee of 30 euros according to the Decree of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on Fees for Services Produced by the Foreign Service. Registering a South African marriage in Finland requires the following:
-A fully completed and signed registration form
-the original and Apostille legalised "unabridged" marriage certificate . Registration cannot be made in the Finnish Population Register without a legalization. Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) offers legalization services in South Africa.
-copies of both spouse's/partners’ passports
- payment receipt