Continuation from the previous post… After we managed to get all our documents to the Norwegian embassy we had to get the only thing remaining: health check… Let me just tell you about ALL the freaking documents one person needs to get married… Apparently there is no such thing as just true love and a passport to get married in Egypt… You need a book full of papers, proving a load of weird horse crap!
You need:
– Proof from the Norwegian government that you can get married, with your details, stating you are single… Okey I get that, but honestly, why would I want to get married if im already married, you’re taking me for an idiot!! There were some pretty personal questions on the questionnaire I had to fill out in order to get this approval… Was I pregnant with someone elses child (other than the guy im getting married too)? Well, now your calling me stupid and easy… Why would I be pregnant with one guys child and get married to someone else? A lot of weird questions, and honestly most of them offended me! But with my 5 children, from 6 different men, and my 3 husbands, I got an all clear to get married again! Hurray!
– Proof of religion?! I always thought and believed that what I believe is personal and between me and my God… Suddenly my religion needs to be proven in order for me to get married?! But who do I need to prove?! I believe what I believe, is this okey for you?! NO, you need to prove to me you have a religion… Okey why? Because you can’t get married without a religion? Why? Because then you don’t believe in god? So? Then you can’t get married! So how do I prove my religion, by praying, by going to a church, by going to a mosque, by telling you I believe in God? How? By handing me a piece of paper that states your religion! So can I not just tell you my religion? NO, it needs to be written on a piece of paper from a church, mosque or synagogue… So if I don’t believe in any of these religions, can I get a cow or a buddha to sign this paper? How can a priest or Imam know what I believe? I can tell them I believe pigs fly and I will be Egypt’s next Queen, NOW SIGN THAT PIECE OF PAPER! Honestly what I believe in should be NONE of your business and should not be something I need to prove to get married… Love doesn’t have a religion…
– Passport. Check, got that… But it’s not the right colour to make this marriage process easy… Norwegian passport just makes everything harder!
– Health certificate… WAIT, WHAT??? Not only do I need to prove I believe in a God, but I also need to prove that im healthy enough to get married? So what happens if im sick and don’t believe in God? Guess true love doesn’t matter then, right? So yeah, Egyptian government requires YOU to go to a PUBLIC HOSPITAL to get a health check to make sure you can get married… When I watched Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Yasmin and Aladdin getting married, they never had health checks?! Cinderella probably had malnutrition and psychological issues, Sleeping Beauty was unconscious for SEVERAL YEARS, and Aladdin was a poor guy who hardly ate and his best friend monkey was full of fleas… I don’t see the government interfering with their fairy tales to check their health before they get married… I’m sorry I have asthma and have a had a few earache during my childhood.. I have also removed my tonsils, can I PLEASE PLEASE still get married to the love of my life?
So yeah these are the papers we need to get married… Most of them are pretty stupid, but if I need to prove im not a loony atheist that has never prayed and have a thousand and one diseases im planning to give my husband, then so be it…
This health certificate must come from a public hospital!!! HEART STOPS! I have been to a cheap private clinic here, and let me tell you it was not a pleasant experience. Now we managed to find a public clinic that was not entirely free… Apparently ALOT cleaner than public hospitals… BUUUUT if the cleaner and the walls are dirtier than the rubbish dump in Norway, then im worried! Walk in healthy and leave the clinic with 4 diseases you´ve never heard about!
Yesterday we went to get this health certificate. We went there a few days before but arrived at 12am, and at this time they had already done their job for the day… Yepp, that’s a long long working day! They accept only 15 couples per day, a total of 30 people for this health check.. We were told to come back tomorrow at 8am to get it done.
So yesterday we arrived at the clinic at 8 am, EXACTLY like the lovely(NOT really) woman told us the previous day! Clinic is closed.. My fiancée asks a few people and they say the clinic doesn’t open until 8:30am… GREAT start to a beautiful morning… WHY the hell does someone tell us to come at 8 when the FREAKING CLINIC DOESNT OPEN UNTIL 8:30?!?!? HELLLOO??? Is that funny? Shes not even there to laugh at us for coming 30 min early, so what was the point? Anyways 45 minutes after we arrived the clinic opens… We walk into where the health certificates are issued and there is only a super old dirty cleaner walking around… she tells a couple that arrived 3 seconds before us to write their name on a piece of paper and then pass it around to the next couples that arrive…
We sat down on some suuuper dirty, sticky chairs in a corridor without ventilation and one working fan. It was over 35 degrees pretty early in the morning and as people started pouring in to get their health certificate it got hotter and smellier… People shirts started to change colour and smell of sweat became stronger, peoples mood changed from ‘happy to be getting married’ to ‘why the hell is it so hot, and get the hell moving’… There were dirty towels on the floor, the walls were full of dust and dirt, the whole place smelled like sweat and urine, and there we were, the only 2 people with clean clothes, and perfume on…
At 9:30am a doctor unlocked the door, walked into the health certificate office and locked the door behind her… A ray of hope entered everyone’s eyes after sitting in this smelly, hot corridor for nearly an hour… My fiancée asked the cleaner, who was also in charge of informing people where to go, if the doctor would start soon… the cleaner laughed a long evil laugh and said completely serious: The doctor has JUST arrived, please relax, she now needs to change her clothes and make a cup of tea, please understand there is still a while to wait… She can’t do everything at once?!
Breathe…. One…. Twoooooooo….. THREEEEEEE! What the hell have we been waiting for… Who makes her queen of this clinic, and what makes her time more valuable and important than mine?!? HUH?!
At 9:55 am the first guy walks into the office… My fiancée explodes and says: WHY THE HELL has it taken you so long to start this process? We have been here since 8am?! Why did you come so early, that is not my problem! Weell it is when you told us to come to a clinic at 8am, and it wasnt even open… NO NO NO, I told you to come at 8am and write YOUR NAME ONLY! I didn’t tell you to wait!
Okey…OKEY OKEY OKEY…. There was NOOOOOOO freaking way we could argue with a brainless woman… If she was so intelligent, where were we supposed to write our name when the clinic was closed?! ON THE FREAKING WALL OUTSIDE THE ENTRANCE?!?! ON THE STEPS LEADING INTO THE CLINIC? How could we write our name on an invisible list and then leave, to come back later an unspecified time… WHO told us you would be coming at 9:30am to the clinic? NO ONE… HOW CAN WE KNOW, if you don’t tell us.. We do what we are told!?
Anywho… at 10am, exactly 2 hours after we arrived, we were called in… We had brought with a piece of paper that had all our information, plus health issues. Me and my fiancée wrote we had no health problems, and that we refused to take a blood test. She asked us our names, we showed her our ID/passport, and we gave a fingerprint. We signed a piece of paper and were told to take it to the manager’s office, for her to sign it…
We took this paper to the manager… She signed it without looking at us… Then we had to get this paper stamped… At the exact moment we went to get the paper stamped the guy who was supposed to stamp it, left the office… 10 minutes later he comes back with a newspaper and a bottle of Pepsi… OH THANK GOD we waited for this emergency trip to the kiosk around the corner… Have you had time to read the newspaper or would you like to do that now, WHILE WE STAND HERE IN THE HOT SUN WAITING FOR YOU to stamp this lovely piece of paper?! No respect!
He stamped it and 2 hours and 30 minutes later we were healthy enough to get married, without taking a blood test, urine test and without anyone examining us… As long as we could walk into the office in a decent manner, talk and sign our name in arabic we were HEALTHY! I couldn’t actually sign my name in arabic, TO THEIR SHOCK AND HORROR, so my fiancée signed it for me…
Next step, is handing all our papers to Egyptian superman to fix the rest of this extreme battle…
I think Egypt is declaring war on Love… How people get married in this country without having a mental breakdown, is miracle to me!
The public clinic full of smart employees!
My health certificate!
Femieshe 
I am sat in an A/C room in Rehab wetting and sweating myself reading this blogpost.
Haha love that!
I couldn’t stop laughing 😀 😀 😀
This a reason why me and my husband got married in Canada (we are both Canadian, and this is changing everything, right?), one phone call to get minister, next day we got married! Oh by the way we were trying to get married in Egypt, but due to all processing, revolution, etc., didn’t happen… so it did happen different way 🙂
Good… you are done with all and happily married!
Cheers -Agnes
Haha yeah Egypt is a crazy country! im glad you guys didnt have to go through that process here! In a country where marrying is such an important thing, its wierd they make it so difficult! YEah thank God we finally got married in the end, and never have to go through that process again! Thanx for reading my blog!
I read your post last year after meeting an Egyptian man I am now sharing life with. We are in the process now of getting our legal marriage done, and I recalled your adventures with it to help us navigate the maze. I am so glad you posted a copy of your certificate I can use as a reference to make sure they give us the correct thing!
My husband went last week to the local government hospital and was told the office that does the medical exams was closed Monday and Wednesday. So we went this past Sunday; no one was there at the time (it was 1 pm) and on that day the guy said to come back Wednesday (claiming they were actually closed Monday and Tuesday). So we are going back tomorrow to try our luck again. If it doesn’t work out, there’s always Thursday I suppose lol…
Im so sorry for an incredibly late reply! How did the process go? I remember those days unfortunately, and the extreme headaches we had trying to figure things out and who needs what and what needs to be stamped and where to get this freaking stamp! I swear Egypt is the country of stamps! Let me know how everything went, im glad my post could help you a little bit through the process! Loads of love x
Hey,
Did you have to pay for this health check?
They want 55egp for my fiance and €55 euros!!!! for me 😡
Where was this clinic? In Cairo? We are living in Hurghada and both public hospitals in Hurghada and Safaga want to rip us off because I’m not Egyptian!
Salam,
Victoria
Hi Victoria! Thank you for reading my blog! Whaaaat on earth? Hahaha only in Egypt will they want Euros! 🔫😳 thats crazy price! We had to pay because we went to a bit nicer form of public hospital, but it should not cost at all! I dont remember what we paid, but we paid them a little extra to not have have them take blood from us, or rather infect us with any diseases! Lol! 😊 the clinic was in heliopolis in Cairo near the courts! ☺️ hopefully it works out for you and congratulations on your wedding! 😍
Hi Victoria,
I just wanted to weigh in- my husband and I DID have to pay for our health exams, but it was nominal- like $30 EP each (I can’t remember exact amount). Unlike femieshe, we were able to waive the blood draws for free.
I can tell you that no one is going to ask for something in euros or USD unless they are trying to get over on you. Right now black market rates for those two currencies are climbing higher each week, so it’s like getting gold. It’s never used for actual transactions, they would have to get it exchanged to pounds for it to be of any use locally. But they probably tried to take advantage of you being a foreigner when they asked for it.
Your better bet is to ask your fiancé to get your euros exchanged at the high black market rates and then go somewhere else that will not be trying to fleece you.