Sometimes, documents must be sent to the High Court for an apostille or attestation before being legally used outside of SA. Apostil.co.za works with all High Courts of South Africa to assist our clients with a range of documents such as apostilles and divorce decrees. We have recently been informed of possible service delays for obtaining documents from the Pretoria High Court.
How long does it take to obtain documents from the Pretoria High Court?
Usually, within two to four weeks, we will have your document, barring any apostillisation or other certifications required after collecting it.
Critically important: Apostil.co.za has an excellent success rate as far as obtaining divorce decrees and other court-issued documents is concerned. However, there are rare instances where documents are missing or removed from the High Court archives. Sadly, when this happens, there is nothing anyone can do to help you obtain a copy of your divorce decree.
There are also instances where files are relocated to different courts or off-site storage facilities. This can also significantly delay the process. In this event, an application must be lodged with the Department of Justice. The additional step in the process will incur extra costs and add a considerable extra waiting time to the timeline.
Service delays expected at the Pretoria High Court
It has been a struggle to obtain old files of the Pretoria High Court that were stored by Metrofile as the files weren’t adequately ordered, which significantly delayed the process of locating and obtaining copies of official documents like divorce decrees.
Any documents issued between 1989 and 2012 at the Pretoria High Court were stored with Metrofile, and only court officials from the High Court could order copies of these documents. The Master’s Office in Pretoria also made use of Metrofile for the filing of old documents.
At the start of March 2023, the contract between the Department of Justice and Metrofile expired, and a new service provider (rumoured to be Iron Mountain) was appointed to take over the storage responsibilities of Pretoria High Court’s documents.
This means that ALL old court documents that were stored with Metrofile must be moved to the new document storage service provider’s warehouses in Midrand and Johannesburg. From reports from our officers, this process is expected to take quite a while to complete. There was also a notice issued to the public at the Pretoria Master’s Office. It explains “services will be slightly affected for the period not exceeding 4 weeks.”
Documents where the stamp and signature thereupon are not from government officials cannot be apostilled by DIRCO. The only way to “apostille” these documents is to have a notary stamp and sign a copy of the original. After this, you must have the notary’s stamp and signature apostilled by the High Court where they are registered.
Notice to all our clients
If you need to have any documents apostilled for legal use abroad, we strongly suggest getting in touch with us. This also applies to our clients that must obtain copies of official documents issued by the High Court. These documents include Divorce Decrees, powers of attorney, and articles of incorporation.
We can submit your applications to the Pretoria High Court soonest and ensure that you receive them in the fastest time possible.
