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Hello,My Indian partner and I are getting married in France in a few weeks. As many couples before us, we had extreme difficulties to obtain any information about how my fiancé could obtain the requested paperwork from India, namely birth certificate and single status certificate. We did not get any useful information from the Indian Embassy in Paris. Instead, it was of forums like this one that we found answer!Here is a summary of what worked for us. You will notice some differences with the previous answers… it looks like how you justify being single to the local administrators varies from one place to the next!Getting the single status certificate was very tricky. In France, in order for someone to prove whether or not they are married, all they need to do is show their birth certificates, because a side note is added to them at every major event in a person’s life. On the contrary, Indian administration, although able to prove that someone is married already, cannot prove that someone is still unmarried. Therefore, the only way is to produce a self-attestation, also called affidavit. We went through a trial and error process because many of the administrators we dealt with were not aware of the procedure. But here is what finally worked:Establish the self-attested single status certificate on 100 Rs Bond paper (first party: applicant; second party: Sub-Divisional Magistrate), at the office of the sub-divisional magistrate. See template #1 below. It needs to have your signature, and that of the subdivisional magistrate. The subdivisional magistrate accepted to sign it after we provided him with a certificate from the Tahashildar of my fiancé’s birth Taluka, saying that he knew my fiancé was still unmarried. Depending upon how well you know the Tahashildar, do consider taking a certificate from the village accountant, and then go to Tahashildar. We do not know if things would go the same way in all districts.Attestation at the Regional Commissioner’s (RC) office. The Ministry of External Affairs will only add an apostille on such attested documents. In our case, there were clear explanations on the Regional Commissioner’s website as to what the procedure for document attestation was (documents required, fee, bond paper value). The RC asked us to justify why my fiancé needed a single status certificate. Single status certificates are usually needed by people joining the Army, in which case the RC office receives a request letter. I asked the mayor of my village in France to sign a request letter (see template #2, which I drafted myself). The chance we have is that I come from a very small village, so the mayor knows my fiancé and me personally and she accepted right away. I have no idea if getting such a letter from a bigger municipality would be easy. Once you submit the document, the RC’s office will send it back to the administration that produced it in the first place, in order to check for its authenticity. This journey back and forth shouldn’t take more than 25 days but it can be helpful to monitor this process closely by visiting or calling both offices on a regular basis.Send the attested document to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for apostillation. As of 2019, Indian MEA only accepts apostillation requests through outsourced companies, which are listed on MEA’s website. This step is mandatory for your documents to have a legal value outside of India.The birth certificate, after being obtained from your birth town’s municipality office, goes through the same channels as the single status certificate: attestation by the Regional Commissioner then apostillation by MEA.Some tips we learned along the way:Be prepared to invest a lot of time, patience and creativity into getting this done! In our case it took more than 4 months between the day when my fiancé signed his single status certificate and the day we finally had it apostilled in our hands. In between there were dozens of phone calls and visits to various offices, a lot of head scratching, and money wasted on plane tickets (because of the monsoon).Do not hesitate to use your relations in the local administrations if you have any. Also keep monitoring the process, by calling or visiting the offices because mistakes are very common.All the steps need to be performed in person, which can be tricky when you already live outside India. There are companies that offer to take care of it if you are prepared to pay. My fiancé went around this problem by naming his brother his authorized representative (procedure done in front of his Taluka’s notary). After my fiancé established his single status certificate in person in front of the sub-divisional magistrate, his brother was able to take over the following steps. We finally asked the company who took care of the apostille to send the documents to our address in France through DHL (we do not trust regular post because we have had letters stuck several weeks at airport customs in the past).My fiancé first tried establishing his single status certificate in front of his Taluka’s notary, as mentioned in most forum posts we read online. However, the Regional Commissionner categorically refused to attest it, because you’re not supposed to make any changes once the notary has signed the document.Template #1 - single-status certificate, affidavitI, (name of applicant), son of (name of father) and (name of mother), with permanent address (address in India), solemnly affirm and declare as follows:1. That I am a citizen of India2. That I was born in (place of birth) on the (date of birth)3. That I am holding a valid Indian passport bearing the number (passport number) issued at (place of issue) and valid from (date of issue) to (date of expiry).4. That I am unmarried (single) and have no living souse at present either in India or abroad5. That I am eligible to marry an Indian or a person of any other nationality according to law.6. That I am of sound health and in mentally fit condition7. I further state that whatever stated therein is correct to the best of my knowledge.I am aware that suppression of facts or furnishing false/misleading information is punishable under Indian law, under section 193(2), 199, 200 of Indian Penal Code.Solemnly declared at (place of signature) on (date of signature).(your signature) (the subdivisional magistrate’s signature)Template #2 - Request letter from the French Mayor to the Indian Regionnal Commisionner (drafted in French AND english)Madame, Monsieur,(english below)je, sous-signé(e) (Name of the mayor), maire de la commune de xxx, département de xxx,France, certifie comme suit.Premièrement, queMonsieur/Madame (Name of Indian future spouse), citoyen(ne) Indien(ne), passeport N°xxx, délivré à xxx le xxx, valide jusqu’au xxx,résidant à (adresse), INDEetMadame/Monsieur (Name of French future spouse), citoyen(ne) français(e), passeport N° xxx, résidant au (adresse), FRANCEm’ont demandé de célébrer leur mariage dans ma commune en vertu de la loi française.Deuxièmement,que la loi française m’oblige à requérir de la part de Monsieur/Madame (Name of Indian future spouse) un certificat attestant de son célibat.Fait pour servir et valoir ce que de droitDear Sir/Madam,I, (Name of the Mayor), Mayor of the Commune of xxx, located in the county of xxx, FRANCE,who signed this certificate, certify as follows.Firstly, thatMr/Mrs (Name of Indian future spouse)I, citizen of INDIA, passport number xxx issued inxxx on the xxx, valid until xxx, residing at xxx, INDIAandMrs/Mr (Name of French future spouse), citizen of France, passport number xxx, residing at xxx, FRANCEhave requested that I solemnise their marriage in my Commune, under the laws of France.Secondly,that under the laws of France, I am obliged to request from Mr/Mrs (Name of Indian future spouse) a certificate attesting that he is single.Issued for all legal intents and purposes(place, date, mayor’s stamp and signature)Note:Established on the municipality’s letterhead paper, directly in french AND english so that we did not have to go through a certified translator. 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