Get your divorce decree & divorce case number

Many people require divorce decrees for certain applications overseas, but sometimes in the difficult time that divorce poses, no records were kept and they do not have a copy of their divorce decree or even case number.

If you were married in South Africa or had your marriage registered in South Africa, you would have been set as MARRIED on the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) system and would at that stage have been able to obtain an unabridged marriage certificate. If you then divorced, you would need to have registered the divorce on the system too, by going into a DHA branch or SA mission abroad. Thereafter, you would not be able to obtain a marriage certificate, but a letter of no impediment stating your DIVORCED status.

What is a divorce decree?

 

When someone is asked to produce a divorce decree, it usually means they require the front page of the decree only, stamped and signed by the High Court or court in which the decree was issued. Sometimes, the divorce decree and full settlement are required, which means the whole document that you and your ex-spouse signed and agreed upon to divorce each other legally.

A typical South African divorce decree page looks a little something like this (names and details removed), but may differ slightly depending on the court and year of issue. Simply click to enlarge the divorce decree.

The format may differ slightly of this front page, but usually the stamp from the High Court is in red ink and without ink stamps and signatures, the document can often not be used as it would then only be a copy.

 

How to obtain a divorce decree in South Africa

 

Thankfully, unless you have absolutely no details of the divorce and cannot remember the court it took place in, obtaining one is not a long process, but definitely a difficult one. Members of the public and foreigners often do not even have access to the places that lawyers can attend, within the High Court, to obtain the divorce decree documentation.

If you are abroad, you cannot simply go and obtain your South African divorce decree online. You will need to make an application at the High Court and obtain an original copy from them.

The minimum information needed to obtain a divorce decree quickly is the divorce case number and the court in which it took place. Without the case number, the exact date and court would allow a lawyer to search the divorce records of that year, month and date and find the divorce case number and decree in that method. With only a year (no month or day), the lawyer would have to search through all the divorces of that year in that court. Even worse, some people only know which city they were divorced in, but there are several courts to search within each major city in South Africa (e.g. Durban has three).

 

In other words, the following are all bits of information that can assist to obtain the divorce decree faster:

• Divorce case number
• Court in which the divorce took place
• The date (day, month and year) of the divorce
• The names and ID numbers of the people involved (plaintiff and defendant)

 

Sometimes people have an old scanned copy of the divorce decree and this contains all the above information and more! So, if you do have a divorce decree and are reading this, go and scan your current copy now. It may prove worthwhile and save you a lot of time and money in future.

 

It is important to note, however, that:

a.) While Apostil has an excellent success rate with obtaining divorce decrees, there are rare instances where we go to the court, search for and locate the file, but then are shown by the court staff that there is no documentation in the file/folder. In this case there is nothing further we (or anyone else) can do to assist.
b.) In some instances, after searching for a file at the given court, we find that the file has been relocated to a different court or off-site archive, often only obtainable through an application at the Department of Justice. In these cases, Apostil may request an additional fee and the timing will change considerably (additional 3 months).

Although the above two situations happen very rarely, they are real possibilities which we need to inform you of before proceeding.

What are the next steps after obtaining a divorce decree?

 

Once you have the document, some countries or authorities just need an original and others need it to be apostilled or attested. If apostilled, DIRCO will be verifying the court and not the document.

 

What does it cost to obtain the divorce decree?

 

Before attempting to search for your divorce decree in South Africa, find out exactly what you require and then contact us to find out an estimated timing and pricing. Generally speaking, the pricing for divorce decrees with or without case numbers is the following, also displayed on our pricing page.

Divorce documents
Divorce decree with case number	R4,750	1-4 weeks
Divorce decree without case number	R6,750	1-24 weeks
Settlement Agreement (if exists in file)	+R1,250	Included in above