Published: 16 September 2026 · Reading time approximately 7 minutes
A certificate of single status is an official document showing that a person has no record standing in the way of their marrying. If a marriage is to take place in Türkiye with a foreign national, the marriage registry office asks the foreign party for this document. Its name varies from country to country: certificate of capacity to marry, civil status certificate, single status certificate, Ledigkeitsbescheinigung.
Where is the document obtained?
The foreign party obtains the document from the competent authority of their own country — usually the civil registry office, the municipality or a unit attached to the ministry of justice. There are two practical routes:
- Obtaining it from the competent authority in their own country and bringing it to Türkiye
- Obtaining it from their own consulate in Türkiye
If the document obtained from the consulate can be issued in Turkish or bilingually, the process is shorter. A document brought from the person's own country, on the other hand, needs a certification chain.
Apostille or consular certification?
What determines this is whether the country issuing the document is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention.
If it is a party state: an apostille annotation is affixed to the document in that country. No separate consular certification is then required in Türkiye.
If it is not a party state: the document is certified first at that country's ministry of foreign affairs and then at the Turkish mission in that country. This chain takes longer and can eat into the document's period of validity.
The translation step
Once the certified document arrives in Türkiye it is translated into Turkish by a sworn translator. Marriage registry offices mostly ask for a notarised translation. The apostille annotation is part of the document as well, so it must be included in the translation — translating only the text of the document and skipping the annotation is one of the most common reasons a file is sent back.
Watch the period of validity
A certificate of single status is not a document without a time limit; many authorities expect it to be submitted within a certain period from the date of issue. Obtaining the document very early and then moving slowly through the apostille and translation chain means arriving on the wedding day with an expired document. The correct order is: settle the date of the marriage roughly, then start the document chain.
Other documents requested alongside it
A certificate of single status is not enough on its own. The foreign party is also asked for a valid passport and identity document, a birth certificate and the health report the marriage registry office directs them to obtain. For someone who has been married before, a document showing the divorce or the death record is also required; that document goes through the same certification and translation chain.
How do we manage this chain?
We establish at the outset which country falls within the apostille chain, which certification each document needs and what the marriage registry office's current list is. Our sworn translators prepare the translation of the certificate of single status and we arrange the notarial certification. We also check against the calendar whether the document's validity will last until the wedding day.
Legal basis
The provisions of Turkish Civil Code No. 4721 on impediments to marriage; the 1961 Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (the Hague Apostille Convention); the practice under the Civil Registration Services Law.
Legislation and administrative practice may change. The information on this page is for general guidance only; an assessment specific to your case requires a consultation.