If I overstayed my visa and it has been waived, will it affect how my South African partner and I register our marriage?

The long answer

It’s hard to predict exactly how this overstay might affect your situation. The waiver letter, which you are regularly asked to show by immigration officials on entering South Africa, does not have a time limit. Which means both that it is valid for future entries, and that it does not erase the previous overstay. This would suggest that Home Affairs may pay particular attention to it when assessing your spousal visa application, which could lead to delays, and in the worst scenario, a denial of the visa.

But given your five-year long-term relationship with your South African partner, this does not seem very likely.

You will need a letter of non-impediment from Namibia or the Namibian consulate, stating that you are not married in your country of citizenship and thus are free to marry in South Africa. Once you have this letter of non-impediment, you can make an appointment with Home Affairs to arrange a marriage interview. This could take three weeks to set up.

At the marriage interview, you and your partner will be questioned separately about the relationship and documents like the letter of no impediment will be taken in for consideration. The point of the interview is to establish to the satisfaction of Home Affairs that this is a genuine marriage.  

In an article, Jane Luna Immigration Attorneys explains that once the interview is done and all papers verified, the couple will receive a written letter from Home Affairs which they must give to their marriage officer who will officiate at their wedding. This letter gives the marriage officer the legal right to sign off on the official wedding papers and to log necessary documents with Home Affairs to register the wedding.

On the day of the marriage, this website on family and divorce law in South Africa says that the following documents must be submitted:

• identity documents (for each person getting married);

• if a foreign national is marrying a South African citizen, they must both present their valid passports, as well as a completed Declaration for the Purpose of Marriage, Letter of No Impediment;

• if any of the persons getting married are divorced, then the final decree of divorce must be furnished; and

• if any of the persons getting married are widowed, the deceased spouse’s death certificate must be submitted.

Two witnesses and the marriage officer must sign the marriage register after the solemnisation of a marriage. Then the marriage officer must issue the parties with a handwritten marriage certificate (BI-27) free of charge.

The marriage officer must then submit the marriage register to the nearest office of the Department of Home Affairs, where the marriage details will be recorded in the National Population Register.

You can then get an official abridged marriage certificate, which contains names and ID numbers, from Home Affairs shortly after your marriage ceremony.

After that you can apply for an unabridged marriage certificate from Home Affairs, which has more detailed information such as nationalities and the date of marriage, besides names and ID numbers. It must be given to couples where one spouse is a foreign national. The unabridged certificate takes longer to issue. It no longer has the heading “UNABRIDGED” but simply states “MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE”. The unabridged certificate is necessary for applying for visas such as the spousal visa and for international travel.

Intergate Immigration explains that a spousal visa is a visa that enables foreign nationals to live with their South African husband or wife in South Africa. It is a temporary visa and falls under the relatives’ section of South Africa’s Immigration Act. You can apply for a spousal visa as soon as you are married. The spousal visa will be issued for two or three years at a time, and once you’ve been married for five years, you can apply for permanent residency.

The documents required for the spousal visa application include the marriage certificate, proof of relationship: i.e., sharing a home and expenses, and financial support documentation. Blackpen Immigration explains that the South African spouse must provide financial assurance of a minimum of R8,500 a month for the foreign spouse. 

The spousal visa, once issued, can be endorsed for 

1. working, if you can provide a valid employment contract from a South African-registered company

2. for opening your own business, if you can prove that you have an appropriate business structure in place, which is registered for tax

3. for studying, if you have an acceptance letter from the appropriate earning institution.

You can only apply for one endorsement at a time.

Everything to do with government seems to take a very long time, so you should be sure that your present visa doesn’t run out while you are getting everything together for your marriage!

Wishing you the best,
Athalie