Getting married in Tunisia: documents and procedure

Before the henna and the big evening comes the contract — the sdaq — and with it, paperwork. Here is what to know about getting married in Tunisia: the documents, who performs the marriage, the premarital medical certificate, and the specific steps when one partner is French. This is general information: always confirm the exact list with the municipality, the notaries or your consulate.

Who performs the marriage

• The civil registrar at the municipality, or two notaries (adouls), under Tunisia’s civil status law.
• Two trustworthy witnesses must be present.
• Both spouses must consent, and the minimum age is 18 for both.
• A dowry must be stated in the contract; it belongs to the wife. Religious-only (‘orfi) marriages have no legal existence in Tunisia, as the adouls recently pointed out.

The premarital medical certificate

Each future spouse must provide a premarital medical certificate dated no more than two months before the contract, as required by Tunisian law. It is issued by an approved doctor or laboratory, or free of charge in a public hospital, and includes at least a clinical examination and blood-group test. Coming from abroad for a summer wedding? Count the two months back from the contract date.

Usual documents

• Each spouse’s ID card or passport.
• A recent birth certificate — ask the municipality or notaries how recent.
• Each spouse’s premarital certificate.
• Two witnesses with their ID.
• If remarrying: the divorce judgment, or the previous spouse’s death certificate.

Marrying a French citizen in Tunisia

The French spouse, even if dual national, needs a certificate of capacity to marry (CCAM) from the French Consulate General in Tunis before the marriage; banns are published for ten days and the couple may be interviewed, so allow several weeks and do not set a date before receiving it, as the consulate advises. Registering the marriage in France with the central civil registry in Nantes is not mandatory but recommended, according to service-public.fr. Two Tunisian nationals living abroad can also marry at a Tunisian consulate under conditions listed on the consular portal.

Then, the invitations

Once the contract date is certain, you can invite: each event — contract, henna, main evening — gets its own line. See Tunisian wedding traditions and our wording guide.