Marriage registration procedure:

The British Embassy does not hold a marriage licence and so is not able to perform marriage ceremonies. For a British national to get married in Ethiopia they must produce a ‘Certificate of no Impediment’ (CNI) to the local authorities. This can either be obtained in the UK from your local Registry Office before leaving the UK or from Consular Section here. To obtain one here you need to come into the Consular Section and complete a notice of marriage – you need to have been resident in Ethiopia for at least the 21 days prior to making the notice of marriage. The notice then hangs on the Consular Notice board for a further 21 days after which time we can produce the CNI. Britons who are resident in another country but are planning to marry here can complete the ‘notice giving’ phase with their nearest Embassy or consulate and then obtain the CNI here. The Embassy is able to transmit to the General Register Office in the UK the Ethiopian Civil Marriage Certificates of British nationals that have been certified by the Ethiopian MFA.

Birth registration procedure:

The British Embassy in Addis Ababa maintains Birth registers for British citizens in Ethiopia and Djibouti. While it is not a legal requirement that all births of British National are registered with the Embassy there are distinct advantages in doing so. These advantages are that English language, British style documents are immediately available and that all entries in the registers are also recorded with the General Register Office in the UK. This means that there is a permanent UK record of the event and copies of the certificate can be obtained at any point in the future. A further advantage of obtaining a consular birth certificate is that the British nationality of the child is clearly recorded on it along with the exact section of the nationality act that the child comes under. Forms to use when applying for the registration of births and death can be obtained from the Consular section at the British Embassy.