Urgent: Regional or Federal Marriage Certificate? Question about my wedding 4/22

[bobshynoswife]

I am a Canadian citizen going to get married in Lagos, Nigeria on April 22. My fiance has just been advised (by a friend) that it may be better for us to marry at the registry in downtown Lagos, which would be a federal registry, rather than the registry we will be close to, which would issue a state marriage certificate.

He is worried that CIC will question the validity of a state certificate.

We need to know ASAP if this can cause a problem. Going to the federal registry is possible, but it will cost us a lot of money to bypass the usual waiting time and paperwork required.

I know the chance of someone who was married in Nigeria answering this question is slim, but perhaps you might have any advice for me? Thank you!

 

[oceana]

I do not see a problem with you conducting your marriage at a local register office, it is very legit to have one's wedding at the closest registry to one's locality, and CiC would be very wrong to discard marriage certs issued by offices other than the Ikoyi register office. There must be over a hundred register offices in nigeria, and all of them are licensed to do what they do.

CiC looks at the whole package, and would not just refuse an application cos the wedding was not conducted at Falomo Ikoyi. I have seen many cases where marriage certs and divorce papers from outside of lagos state have been ok. And also i thought there was a waiver of the waiting time requirement for Nigerians getting married to spouses resident abroad. Ikoyi services are overated and overpriced anyways.

 

[bobshynoswife]

Thank you for your info! I think we will get married at the closest office and then get our certificiate authenticated at the Canadian High Commission, just to be sure.