Marriages

Where can I marry?


Can I register my overseas marriage in England and Wales?

No, overseas marriages may not be registered at a register office.

However providing the conditions below are met and you are resident in the UK your overseas marriage documents, with translations if necessary can be deposited with the General Register Office via The Foreign and Commonwealth Office. If you are resident outside the UK, please contact your nearest British Consulate for advice on this service:

If you have any further queries regarding the information on this page please contact Marriages and Civil Partnerships.

Conditions

  • your wedding has to have taken place in one of the countries from which we can accept formal notifications. See the full list of countries below.
  • The facility only extends to foreign countries (not countries in the British Commonwealth)
  • one of you must be a British citizen - and only that person can apply to deposit the details.
Please note it is not within the province of the Registrar General to pronounce upon the validity of any marriage as this is a matter only a court may determine. However, generally speaking, a marriage should be recognised as valid in the UK provided it was contracted in accordance with the laws of the country/state where it took place and the couple had the capacity to marry under their law of domicile.


Creating a record

This facility is only a means of readily obtaining General Register Office certified photocopies of your original documents. Using this facility does not alter the validity of your marriage.

You can opt to arrange to create a record of your overseas marriage at any time after it has taken place there is no time limit. However, we only accept original documents, or certified copies issued by the foreign authority

  • only the consul for the district where the marriage took place can send us the documentation
  • we cannot release original documents once they are deposited with us

Please note this is not an automatic process, so you will need to arrange for this to be done.

Contacting you

Once the documents have been deposited, we will send you a letter confirming we have received them. Overseas marriage notifications are also made in the public indexes for research and certificate application purposes.

Obtaining copies

From this point on, we can issue certified copies of the documents which saves you having to contact the overseas authority in question. These always take the form of black and white photocopies of the material we hold, and are not presented in the form of a British-style marriage certificate. Such photocopies are issued under the seal of the General Register Office and are usually acceptable as evidence in just the same way as if they were certificates issued by the authorities of the country where the marriage originally took place.

For further information, please contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office:

Tel: +44 (20) 7008 0186 (10:00 to 12:00 Monday to Thursday)
www.fco.gov.uk/bmd

If you have any further queries regarding this information please contact Marriages and Civil Partnerships.

Countries from which we accept formal notifications:

AfghanistanGuinea & BissauParaguay
Albania
AlgeriaHaitiPeru
American SamoaHawaiiPhilippines
AndorraHondurasPoland
AngolaHong KongPortugal
ArgentinaHungaryPortuguese Timor
ArmeniaIcelandPuerto Rico
AustriaIndonesiaQatar
AzerbaijanIranReunion(Paris)
BahrainIraqRhodes
BelarusIsraelRomania
BelgiumItalyRussian Fed
BoliviaIvory CoastRwanda
BorneoJapanSt.Pierre & Miq
BosniaJerusalemSan Marino
BrazilJordanSardinia
BulgariaKalimantanSaudi Arabia
BurmaSenegal
Serbia
BurundeiKazakhstanSlovakia
Cambodia
Canary IsSlovenia
Cape Verde IsKoreaSomalia
CelebesKuwait
Kyrgyzstan
C African RepLaosSpain
ChadLatviaSudan
ChileLebanonSumatra
ChinaLiberiaSweden
ColombiaLibyaSwitzerland
ConakryLiechtensteinSyria
CongoLithuaniaTajikistan
CorsicaLuxembourgTahiti
Costa RicaMacaoThailand
CreteMacedoniaTimor
CroatiaMalagasy RepTogo
CubaMaldivesTunisia
CuracaoMaliTurkey
Czech RepublicMartiniqueTurkmenistan
DenmarkMauritaniaUkraine
Dominican RepMexicoUnited Arab Emirates
EcuadorMoldovaUSA
Montenegro
EgyptMozambiqueUruguay
El SalvadorMonacoUzbekistan
Equat'l GuineaMongoliaVatican City
EstoniaMoroccoVenezuela
EthiopiaNepalVietnam North
Fernando PooNetherlandsVirgin Is (USA)
FinlandNew CaledoniaYemen Arab Rep
FranceNicaraguaYemen Dem Rep
GabonNigerZaire
GeorgiaNorway
GermanyOman
GreecePalestine
GuatemalaPanama



External Links