If you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, once you have married your fiance from Afghanistan or you have lived together for one year as common-law partners, you can sponsor him or her for permanent residence in Canada.

Requirements To Get Married in Afghanistan

Fill and sign the marriage certificate Application form
The wife and husband should be present with their Afghan IDs (Passport or Tazkira) when delivering the application to the consulate
Include Nekah Khat, or any other documents certifying their marriage
Include any supporting documents such as the birth certificate of a son or daughter.

Costs of a Wedding in Afghanistan:

$50 زوجیت خط (Per marriage certificate copy)

Marriage in Afghanistan is a relatively very costly process, including excessive costs for wedding halls, lavish meals and usually a bride price. The bride price is the money paid by the groom’s family for the bride to her family.

Steps to get married in Afghanistan:

Foreigners who want to marry in Kabul must first register the marriage at the Family Court, located in the Kabul Governor’s House Compound. In the provinces, outside of Kabul, marriages can be registered at the civil courts.
The couple must appear at the Family Court in Kabul with two witnesses and photo identification (preferably their passports). Witnesses should also have photo identification. If one of the individuals who wish to marry is Muslim, a religious Muslim ceremony will be performed at the time of registration. If both individuals are foreigners and non-Muslim, a civil ceremony may be performed. After the court ceremony, the couple is considered married under Afghan law; they may then conduct the family or religious ceremony/celebration of their choice.
After the marriage is registered, the court will issue a marriage certificate upon request. In Kabul, court officials say, it will take about a week to receive the certificate.

Religious Marriages

If both or one of the parties are Muslim, the Family Court will register the marriage and perform the Muslim nekah ceremony. The nekah comprises the igaba wa qabul (acceptance agreement) and the khotba.
When a Muslim man wants to marry a foreign woman who is non-Muslim and the woman is not kitabi (of the book, i.e. Christian or Jewish), she must first convert to Islam. In either case, the court will only register the marriage religiously, with the nekah ceremony.

Civil Marriages

If both parties are non-Muslim foreigners, the court will register the marriage by performing solely the igaba wa qabul or acceptance agreement without the other half of the typical Muslim religious ceremony. The court will also seek to apply the regulations governing marriage in the couples’ home country. For example, although Afghan law permits polygamy, foreign men will not be allowed to marry multiple women.

Commonly observed local marriage customs in Afghanistan

Traditional Wedding in Afghanistan:

When a boy and a girl want to get married, the boy sends a marriage proposal to girl’s home and family.

After the acceptance of the proposal, the future bride’s parents throw an engagement party for their relatives and friends. The engagement party is followed by the Khina (Henna) night. The bride wears traditional Afghan clothes, and the groom wears jami (traditional Afghan pants and shirt) with a lungy (traditional Afghan head gear). The bride’s sister also wears traditional Afghan clothes and silver jewelry. The bride’s dress is different from everyone else’s, however. The evening is celebrated with Attan dancing (traditional Afghan dance).

As part of the tradition, the bride closes her hand, and the groom’s mother will try to open her hand. If she does not manage to open the bride’s hand, the bride will receive an expensive gift from the groom’s mother.

Then, seven unmarried girls apply khina on the bride’s hand. It is believed that that these seven girls will be the next to marry. The khina night celebrations are a lot of fun.

Finally the wedding day arrives. While some people have the wedding party during the day, others have their wedding party at night. During the day, the bride starts out wearing green clothes, and the Nikah (religious ceremony) takes place during the day while the bride wears green.

After the Nikah, the bride wears white clothes and the groom wears a suit. Pictures are taken and refreshments are provided. Later, shortly before the bride cuts the cake, the groom’s sister takes the knife and performs the sword dance with it. During this dance, the sister dances with the knife and asks her brother for money for the bride. Once her brother gives the money, she gives the knife to her brother. Then the groom and the bride cut the cake and eat with each other.

Its now time for bride to leave her mother and father’s house. For this event, the brother of the bride ties a green cloth around the departing bride’s waist. The bride leaves her parents’ home and is driven away. Once she arrives at the groom’s house, she won’t come out of the car until she receives a beautiful gift. Once she receives the gift, she leaves the car.

During the wedding night, the bride and groom are covered in a chadar and are given a mirror where they see each others reflections simultaneously and they read the QUR,AN SHAREF.

Afterward they have tahkjami. At tahkjami, the bride’s family comes to the bride house and they bring her lots of gifts called jahez (jewelry). Lastly, after tahkjami, the couple goes on their honeymoon.

http://www.aiwr.org/in-the-life/traditional-wedding-afghanistan

Possible Challenges/problems for Getting Married in Afghanistan

Child marriages (specifically Bride’s age)
Polygamy
Marriage without the consent of the parties (forced marriage)
Exchange marriage, or baadal, (is an agreement between two families on “exchanging” daughters or other female family members through marriage. The daughter (the agreements may involve several women from each family) of one of the parties is married into the other party’s family, and vice versa. The Women and Children Legal Research Foundation (WCLRF), as well as a number of other sources, point out that baadal marriages often involve minors. According to a study of marriages conducted by WCLRF, a total of 30 per cent of the child marriages studied in Balkh, Nangarhar, Kabul and Parwan were baadal The report from the the Max Planck Institute (MPI 2005) referred to above, provides an example of a baadal agreement:

According to a report commissioned by Norwegian immigration authorities, the following could be said about the institution of marriage in Afghanistan:

“Certain factors appear central in relation to marriage: The marrying parties have little influence on the choice of partner; local tradition and religion govern the institution of marriage; the institution of marriage is marred by number of discriminatory and oppressive practices; there are no adequate registration routines put in place by the authorities, and formalities are of subordinate importance for whether a couple is considered married.”

An 80-year-old father married his eight-year-old daughter to a man aged 50. In exchange, the father married the 14-year-old girl of that man. Neither girl had reached her age of puberty. The Department of Women’s Affairs sent representatives to talk to the men, but the men replied by saying “that is not your business.” (As reported by the head of the Department of Women’s Affairs of Balkh).

https://www.landinfo.no/asset/1852/1/1852_1.pdf

Sponsoring Your Spouse From Afghanistan To Canada

Questions commonly asked at sponsorship interviews:

Development of Your Relationship

What did the two of you have in common?
Was your marriage arranged?
Which family members participated in the arrangement?
When did your relationship turn romantic?
How long was it before you decided to get married?

The Wedding

How many people attended your wedding?
Did each of your parents attend?
Was there music or other entertainment?
What kind of cake (or other food) did you serve?
Who were the bridesmaids/groomsmen?
How late did the guests stay?
Did the bride change clothes for the reception?
What time did you and the [bride or groom] leave the reception?
Did you go on a honeymoon? When did you leave? How did you get there? What airlines?

Cultural practices which may be challenging in sponsorship applications/interviews, such as:

Polygamy: a man’s right to be married to several women at the same time, is legal both under Sharia law and Afghan civil law (a man can be legally married to four wives). According to the Civil Code (Civil Code 1977, Section 86), the following requirements must be met:

When there is no fear of injustice between the wives.
When the person has financial sufficiency to sustain the wives. That is, when he can provide food, clothes, suitable house, and medical treatment.
When there is legal expediency, that is when the first wife is childless or when she suffers from diseases which are hard to be treated.

Even though Afghan authorities accept polygamous marriage under those conditions, polygamy is illegal in Canada and a no partner in a polygamous marriage can be sponsored.

Sponsorship Application Forms for Afghan Applicants

Checklist

Document Checklist – Spouse (including dependent children of spouse) [IMM 5533] (PDF, 3.7 MB)
- Use your checklist to make sure you include all the forms and documents you need.
- Place the checklist on top, as a cover page for your application package
Application to Sponsor, Sponsorship Agreement and Undertaking (IMM 1344) (PDF, 588.96 KB)
Sponsorship Evaluation and Relationship Questionnaire (IMM 5532) (PDF, 2.21 MB)
Use of a Representative [IMM 5476] (PDF, 648.31 KB)

For the person being sponsored (principal applicant):

Generic Application Form for Canada [IMM 0008] (PDF, 652 KB)
Additional Dependants/Declaration [IMM 0008DEP] (PDF, 433.80 KB)
Additional Family Information [IMM 5406] (PDF, 570.00 KB)
Schedule A – Background/Declaration [eIMM 5669] (PDF, 597.99 KB)

Use of a Representative [IMM 5476] (PDF, 648.31 KB)

Longer processing times than the official government listing of 12 months?

Average 12 – 18 months.
But on one rare case it went 2.5 years long, still on processing (wife sponsoring afghan husband).

Do people in Afghanistan engage in arranged marriages/matchmaking? Or are marriages usually love marriages?

90% of marriages are arranged marriages there.

Are documents issued in Afghanistan issued in any language other than English or French? If so, what language(s)?

Official documents in Afghanistan are issued in Dari or Pashto. They will require translation into English or French for submission to IRCC.

Unique Sponsorship Application Requirements from Afghanistan

Supplementary Information – Your travels [IMM 5562] (PDF, 1.76 MB)
The principal applicant and all family members included in the application who are 18 years of age or older must complete this form.
Details of Military Service [IMM 5546] (PDF, 1.16 MB)
Complete this form for anyone included on the application who has ever held a high ranking/senior official government position or served in the military, army, defence or police unit, (including National Service), and submit a copy of the military card/booklet, including blank pages, if applicable.

Afghanistan – Instruction(s) for documents

For applicants under the spousal category: If you were married according to the rites, customs, and/or traditions of this country, please submit printed photos of the principal applicant and the sponsor with relatives and friends. Photos submitted should include photos of the wedding ceremony (signing of the contract or Nikkah) and customary celebrations held afterwards (the wedding reception or the Rukhsati). Photos should also include pictures taken of the principal applicant and the sponsor together on other occasions, either before and/or after the wedding.
For civil documents issued for Afghanistan:
- Marriage certificate(s): The document to be submitted is the “Waseeqa Nikkah ”.
- Divorce certificate(s): The document to submit is the “Decree Absolute”.
If you hold an Afghan passport, you and each of your family members included in the application must provide:
- a copy of the National Identity Card (Tazkira).
- If 18 years of age or older, copies of any old expired passports
The principal applicant and any family members included in the application who are 18 years old and older and who are Afghan nationals, must provide copies of any old expired passports.