Marriage in Denmark to avoid German red tape

As a Canadian born American, with very recent experience, I would be tempted to suggest that you get married in the Phillipines, get your marriage legalised at the German Embassy in the Phillipines, and come back to Germany to your local Auslanderbehoerde. It's a lot easier...

We flew to Ontario at the beginning of October, and got married there.

If one partner is from a NON-EU country, it can take from between 3 to 6 months to get approval for your marriage. The catch is, that your original documents, the long form new extraction from your birth certificate, cannot be dated any older than 6 months, so if it takes a month to reach you, and then your application sits mouldering on some bureaucrat's desk for the full six months, your application gets rejected because your documents are too "old".

Check out Ontario, Canada, or Vegas North as we fondly refer to it now - Ontario has no citizenship requirements and no residency requirements. Choose Toronto, and check out marryus.org or whatever it is at Toronto City Hall - not expensive, and the staff are just lovely. All you need are valid passports and a couple hundred bucks, plus a hundred and thirty five dollars for the marriage license which you have to get before hand. You do have to wait between 8 and 12 weeks for your marriage to be registered, order your certificate online, get it shipped directly to you, send it back to the German Embassy in Toronto to get it legalised, and then get it translated and apply at your local office, but trust me, it was a lot easier than what we would have had to do as a couple with one Non-EU member...

As a person from a Non-EU member country, my German husband and I were going to have to wait for 12 weeks to get married in Denmark.

Sorry, but we had already booked the restaurant for our celebration in my new hometown, having no idea that we could even be rejected and asked to reapply after waiting for up to 6 months.

It was a lot easier to get a couple of 500 dollar flights to Toronto out of Frankfurt and I am poor. I willingly and happily learned the language. What I am not going to do it learn German Bureacracy. If there is a legal way around it, and there often is, I will always take that route.

Good luck,
Carol Anne

Hello.. good i found this great site..

I've been reading every post on this thread because i'm on a similar situation as many over here..

my fiance is German, living in Schleswig-Holstein (with family in Flensburg which is RIGHT on the danish border..hehe and he also speaks some danish).. and I'm from Venezuela..

I've read in other sites about the process of getting married in Denmark that is quite easy.. but as I understood, as long as both are EU residents..
I've read here about the experience of nationals from Malasya and S.A. but still i have a lot of doubts about my own nationality.. I mean.. with the fact that I'm still living here in Venezuela and we want to get married next year both living in Deutschland.. of course is not by convenience.. we are together since more than a year.. months ago he was here and we got engaged officially.. and we want the best, cheapest and easiest way to get married because none of us have enough money to travel here and there (Ven - De). So we were thinking to go to Denmark (as so far we're thinking to fix our residence in Kiel or in Schleswig, is very close the danish border).

Many months ago I went to the German Embassy here in Caracas and the reception of the 'Lady' who attended me was not the best, indeed i went to ask about all the procedures to get married and she was quite harsh in her answers. For example, never mentioned about that "marriage visa" i've read several times tonight in different sites. And her info regarding the process to do it here was just something like: "go to your local registry office, get married and then present the documents on the embassy to get translated, and apply for the visa and of course you have to present the exam of the language to see if you can defend yourself on the country. if you don't pass it you can't go to live in Germany even if you're married to a german national" (of course i got freaked out and got back to the course because I've forgot the 80% of what i learned of German loooong ago).

So.. I would like to know if anyone could help us to know how to do.. if I would eventually need the mentioned marriage visa to serve as the "required" visa (required for what I've read about getting married in Denmark), or if its not needed at all.. My big question is because I still don't live in Deutschland.. and I can't handle enough money to go there and come back.. and then go there again definitely.

Thank you for your help !!!

Vielen dank für ihre hilfe

Just got back from getting married in Copenhagen - it was a breeze and my Marriage License is in several languages - including German. We have an apt on Feb 7th to get my residence permits situated.

A little note for those in the same boat - what they want in the following :

Marriage Lic.
Registration Doc.
Passports
And hubby's paystub
We also have to bring a translator, and in our case since they have pissed me off one too many times i'm bringing a german attorney who speaks english/german to translate so if they start giving me a bunch of shit.

if you are in berlin and you need to contact these depts. Here are the numbers :

If you are Married to a brit : 030902694106
American: 0302694261, or 4262

They are all located at Friedrich kause uaf 24 by the hauptbahnhauf - but I would recommend a taxi because its a bit of a walk.

They have special sections depending on where your partner in the EU has nationality.

Just exactly how are you supposed to prove your single status and elegibility to marry if you go to Denmark to get married? Exactly which documents do you need to take as an EU citizen?

Also, do you need any apostilles or anything?

We married in Australia (wife German, me Brit) and we had to get an apostilles stamp for the German red tape. It meant we had to pay a recognised official translator to translate the word 'June' from our marriage cert before the German authorities would accept it!

So if we get a marriage certificate in German in Denmark we won't need apostilles then? What about apostilles for the Danish authorities before we go?

I have a similar case.
I (German) want to get married to my PAKISTANI fiance. We actually do not live in Germany or EU. But I still have a residency over there. We are also considering to get married in Denmark, since for Pakistanis it is even more difficult to get married in Germany. Anyone has experience with that? As far as I have learned from Danish authorities it is easy to get married there. But how about having the marriage accepted in Germany later on? Where can I learn more about that?

Denmark is in Schengen, yes? So do they expect to check you on the border or what? I've not travelled in Schengen before so I don't know what to expect.

So I just got off the phone with the town hall in Copenhagen to inquire about marrying in Denmark. I'm American, she is Ukrainian. We've heard from others about all the paperwork we needed (Proof she is single signed by some ministry, birth certificate, anmeldung, aufenhaltsbescheinigung, etc etc). The lady in Copenhagen said - Nope! Just Passport with Visa, thats all. I annoyed her cause I asked the questing 3 different ways because it just sounded too simple. So guess what? I'm asking again Is it really so simple in Copenhagen?

For those that got married there, what about appointments to get married? I forgot to ask the lady because she threw me off when she said it wasn't necessary to send paperwork in advance, that it would all be done there.

Guess my real headache will start with getting her the visa to move to the United States. We need to get there by June and it seems since she is Ukrainian this could be a problem.

I also just spoke with the city hall ppl in Copenhagen and they had me jumping for joy! Yes.. all thats necessary is our passports. Thanks so much to Pomshgrl for clarifying the ease and simplicity of Danish Weddings. I am non-eu...Zimbabwean, getting married to German who lives in Vienna. Im currently in Vienna on tourist visa...checked this info with the marriage office in DK...and thats ok by them! Only problem now is how to change status here in austria or even Germany without spending another 1000 euro on flights back home. The official line with Botschaft here is that i have to return to home country then apply for ´Reunion`visa... Any advice on getting round this would be really appreciated as my visa expires mid May...

Can anyone please tell me how long do I have to stay in Copenhagen in order to get my appointment and and get married all together.

Thank you.

*M

I was there for one day.

Also here is a link for the Kobenhavns Kummune marriage office. They are very helpful. http://www3.kk.dk/Globalmenu/City%20of%20C...s/Marriage.aspx

I get alot of emails asking for info about getting married in Copenhagen and how to deal with the Auslanderbehorder

For Kobenhaven: http://www3.kk.dk/Globalmenu/City%20of%20C...s/Marriage.aspx

For Auslander Take with you :

Originals of your(s) and spouses Registration and one copy.

Original Passport and one copy ( yours & your EU Spouse)

Three months of Paystubs (if your EU spouse already works in Germany), Alternatively if you don't work your bank statements showing your finances)

They asked if we had a letter from my husbands employer stating he worked there. We didn't have this, they didn't tell us we needed this - but in the end it didn't matter. Take it if you have it & one copy.

If your EU Spouse is already working they should have this : bescheinigung uber das gemeinschaftliche aufenthaltsrecht , which is a certificate for work and unlimited right to residence. I know alot of people on here make it sound like the minute an EU citizen pulls up you can walk in and get a job ( which is the case) but the employer has this certificate and should provide you would the original and the copy. You should take this with you to the appointment because they asked for it.

2 Passport Photo's of You. Make sure they conform to the required standards. They wont accept ones that dont.

Original Marriage Certificant and one copy. If it isn't in German or a national marriage certificate, they you will need to get it translated.

Proof you have medical insurance that is valid in Germany.

Take a translator if you do not speak German. I highly advise this as none of them want to speak English.

We took a copy of this, although we didn't end up needing it. http://bundesrecht.juris.de/freiz_gg_eu_20...R198600004.html
It states that people married to EU Citizens have the same rights as an EU Citizen... lots of other stuff, but they get the drift.

We paid 8 Euro's for the card. That was the only cost we paid.

Hmmm that is a tough one. If it was me, I would come to Germany and applying. My Visa states it is valid for the EU. You should consult an immigration attorney to ask what you should do. Since your German husband isn't living in his home country its going to be a little Messy. You should however remind who you are speaking to in Vienna, that according to EU Law you have the same rights as an EU citizen and they cannot hinder or delay your Visa. If you do a search on this in this site I think you will find the link to the law. If you don't them send me a pm and I will try and dig it up.

I'm curious about those requirements. Does that mean you're not allowed to get married in Denmark if you're unemployed or poor? Or even if you're self employed and don't have an employer? What a strange requirement...

Those requirements are for the Auslanderbehorder. And I believe regardless of your situation you have to show some form on income that you are using to support yourself with them. I know it's a cruel world, but they are probably guessing just like I would that if you cant support yourself you aren't going to be able to support someone else either.

Thanks Pmohsgrl for all the helpful tips. See, when I called their office they told me all that I need is my passport with a a valid extended visa, and my fiance (German) needs his passport. I asked if there are any other documents we need and she said - that's it. But we will bring all that you have listed just in case.

Thank you

I think all that documentation is for the Germans when you come back from the marriage in Denmark, not for the Danes.

The documents I listed is for the Auslanderbehorder

The Danish just want to see your passports with your visa.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I'm about at my wits-end trying to navigate the German red-tape to get married to my fiancee.

Me (American) Her (German) it's been a very frustrating process.

Initially, when I contacted the German Consulate in the US on these matters, I was told I needed zero (yes, zero) items of paperwork to get married over here in Germany. When I pressed the issue of needing "nothing" to get married over here (naturally, common sense would dictate otherwise) I was greeted with a bit of hostility that I did not understand the concept of "nothing" being needed.

Since arriving here in Germany (with more than "nothing," solid advice not withstanding) I've collected still more paperwork, but it seems endless as I seem to need still more paperwork to verify the original paperwork, which begs the question of the point of collecting the original paperwork in the first place.

Denmark is looking really good to me right now.

From what I've read, it seems that the specific city/state in Germany dictates the laws on marriage/paperwork and what all is needed to accomplish it. Could/should one assume the same for Denmark?

Thanks,

UA

Wow, interesting, I'll be getting married in July (I'm American, she's German), everything was pretty simple on my end. Had to have a birth certificate with an apostille...and well, sign that I'm not currently married...and...done.

Very easy for Americans to get married in Germany, imo...it could be that it's just Bavaria that's easy. That was going through Munich itself, who then sends the paperwork to the village we're getting married in, but Munich tells them what's proper.

Unfortunately, I've never heard of an apostille until about 20 minutes ago. (See above for my "needing nothing" discussion.)

I should also note, that when I called the US Consulate in Frankfurt from the US, they said the marriage paperwork was "Germany's Problem" and I should look elsewhere. After arriving here, I went to the same Consulate, and they set me up for an appointment for an affidavit right away.

I did get a certified birth certificate and affidavit that I've never been married. My German fiancee contacted the courthouse in Frankfurt before I came over here and instructed me on these.

At no point, was the word apostille EVER used until now, and this is after we've gone back to the German government with "everything".

Where/how did you get your apostille and where did you learn of them?

I also add, that BIOLOGICALLY I am half German, although LEGALLY I am 100% American. Born and raised in the US. I add the half-German bit because that means my mom is German and has a "Familienbuch". However, since I was born in America, I was never entered into my mom's book, and this is working against me, because I now need to get myself somehow appended to it. Were I 100% American, ironically, this might be easier.

Thanks

I just got married there and it was quick and simple. Just fill out the form, both parties show passports with visas if applicable and set a wedding date. Show up on wedding date, wait 10 minutes to say "I do", leave with marriage certificate. Done. I won't even bother to register the marriage in Germany as we are happily headed to the US. But as someone else already posted, to do that isn't difficult, just some pay stubs and junk.

Different places require different papers in Denmark, but nothing like Germany.

i am a non eu resident, living in the US. gf is german. too difficult to marry in germany !! denmark sounds cool. how long does one have to stay there before getting a date for marraige ? i ask this Q again as i am not sure if this duration is longer or more paperwork is reqd from a non resident, non EU, non american citizen.
Pmohsgrl, you have given me hope again !!

I was asked to stay at least 3 days before the wedding, I showed the hotel booking when applying.

PS. You have to book in advance your wedding (you send the documents via post). At least that's what we did. Paperwork is a piece of cake.

...then again, paperwork for the wedding in Germany is a piece of cake too. We were expecting a hassle, had NONE...very simple.

Well, maybe it is easy now or maybe you are lucky. When I tried we had to get married before three months and we could not manage to do it, we gave up and went the Denmark way, I sent one email asking some questions, got all the information, post the documents via mail and 2 days later we had the wedding date.

It wasn't luck, it was just easy. They want a proper birth certificate, the family book of ze German, and a whole bunch of signatures...other than that, no problem. We had 3 months to plan...and everything was easier than we had guessed. One appointment to go through everything (takes 2 minutes), a 2nd to sign shit (takes 20 min), and then...pay and set a date. This was through Munich, btw.

Well, I presume neither of you have been married before and ze German is from Munich. And apart from I think that you are lucky. For people with some personal history it is a nightmare, for women with Eastern European origin it is a double nightmare. And I didn't even need a visa to stay here, I live here anyway. Thank God Denmark exists.

Natalia, well...technically no, she's from Bad Segeberg, so you were wrong on at least one point.

For most people here I doubt it's their 8th wedding, either. What they need is very simple if you have been married before, marriage certificate and divorce certificate.

Here's some recent entertainment

Not sure if many people are reading this thread anymore, but a little bit of personal experience. When we decided to get married (me Irish, girlfriend Russian by birth with Ukranian passport with long term German residents permit), the Berlin authorities told us the paperwork we would need (mountains of it, and all of course translated into German), and they said it would take them at least 6 months to process it, possibly more. Now the only extra complication I had is that I was married in Ireland and divorced in England - so I they needed to confirm the divorce, and this is why they said it might take more than 6 months.

A friend of my girlfriend had got married in Denmark, so we checked it out. It turned out to be incredibly simple, and absolutely the right thing for us to do. As with my girlfriend's wife, we went to the island of Bornholm, not far off the north coast of Germany, and a Denmark community. They were incredibly helpful and efficient, and said it would take 4 weeks to process the paperwork, and arrange a date. When I mentioned the divorce situation, they said that might extend it to 6 weeks. As it happened it took them less than 4 weeks to process the paperwork (remember we are talking about a Irish citizen, a Ukranien citizen with Russian birth certificate, both of us living in Germany, and me being divorced in a country different to which I got married (which at that time did not recognise divorce). There was no need to translate paperwork.

Once we got the date, we just had to book a hotel, and get the ferry over. We stayed there for two days, and there was no complication once we got there - everything was done in English language, by very friendly officials (they even gave us a wedding present). The paperwork was delivered in Danish, German and English languages, and the paperwork has been accepted without any questions by officials in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Germany over the past 6 years. I can't remember the costs, but it was pretty small - probably 100 Euros or so.

So if you are finding the German process for getting married complicated, I highly recommend the Danish route, and Bornholm is generally considered to be the most efficient to work with. OK the island is a bit boring, but if the weather is good, the beaches are lovely, and in the worst case you only need to spend one night there.

Hope this helps,

Colin

Hi there,

good to see that there are other people out there with similar problems like my girlfriend and me... I found the previous replies very helpful, however, am still not confident about about a number of issues... so here's the situation:
My girlfriend (Malaysian) and I (German) are currently living in the UK (Scotland). She holds a valid visum until the end of November this year and since this leaves us less than 3 month to get married, we cannot just get married here, but are investigating the possibility of getting married in Denmark instead. Now, the documents required for a marriage in Denmark to take place seem to vary considerably from place to place, but it seems that usually passports and birth certificates of both parties suffice. Sometimes they seem to ask for some certificate of single status. Any clue on how to get that for my Malaysian girlfriend? For Germans, that usually amounts to a "Meldebescheinigung" from Gemany, however, since I'm currently not registered in Germany, I wouldn't know how to obtain one for myself either. Any suggestions?
In general, where in Denmark would it be the easiest to get married (i.e. with a minimal amount of documents required and where we would not have to be physically present for more than a few days)?
Also, I am wondering what the UK gouvernment's position to Danish marriages is? Do they accept their certificates without any problems? We'd like to apply for a residence stamp in the UK under European law to gain a residence and work permit for my girlfriend after the marriage and I'm a bit concerned that they might give us trouble, because they might assume that we married for the sole purpose of getting her a permit to stay in the UK... anyone had experience with that?

Cheers!

I got married in Denmark for my first marriage. They asked us to provide as well something to prove we were single. I asked my mother to write a letter saying I was single and signed and certify it by a Notar in my homeland. That was enough.

Hi I am new on this site and we are a couple seriously thinking about getting married in Denmark after all the hassle we have been going through all these months, mony has been spent, time has been wasted, papers have been sent back and forth and STILL no wedding.

I have been reading the posts and thank everyone for the information, my question now is this?

When you marry, do you automatically gain your husbands last name? As on the websites I have been reading, we noticed that the wfie keeps her birth name and then has to change it in country of residence after marriage.

For those who have married in Denmark, can you please tell me if husbands name is given to the wife, and if not, the reason and how it can be changed here, thank you.

Well it is much easier to get married in any other country but Germany I have attended and help plan more than enough marriages to fill my cup in several countries including Germany and I am sorry this is the worst country to get married in they take every ounce of happiness out of the whole thing by making it a bureaucratic headache guess that is the German way of things. Denmark is the easiest to deal with there are several options I can give people just PM me. I have worked with the civilians and the Military personnel on options, and marriage in Germany is always the last option. Denmark takes about 4 days or less 90% of the time if you have some complicated issues of course it can take longer or not at all but that is a small percentage most other EU countries require you to either be a EU citizen or resident of have stayed in Country for a certain amount of time. If you have any questions just drop me a line.

Obama 2012

I owuld like information about the name put on the marriage, if the wife can accept the mans name as on the internet it says its not possible

We were asked, we opted for keeping our last names. So I have no experience with the other option.

Hello,

My fiance and I are also thinking about getting married here in Germany soon. I was wondering if anyone could give me some answers about marriage here. I am from the States and he is German. I have a few questions regarding the long process.

What is it that takes 6 months to process the documents? I have heard this from several sources. Is it the Aueslaenderbehoerde? Is it the actual marriage paperwork, or the work permit? I am not allowed to work in Berlin at the moment because I have no work permit. Eventually I would like to work here, so it is important for me to obtain the visa for that purpose also.

So many people on this website have said it is better to get married in the US or even Denmark. Why is this so. It doesn't seem so logical, but I can believe it with the long bureaucratic processes here.

The A1 test...? I know a lot of German, but I am certainly not perfect. Is this required? Where do I take it at? The volkshochschule?

If anyone can help me with these questions, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Ruthie

in response to Krieg...We were asked, we opted for keeping our last names. So I have no experience with the other option.

Can I ask when you got married?

Hi, Ruthie! I'm just getting ready to come through the other end of the marriage process--next Thursday!--and hope my experience will be of some help to you. From what I've heard, the paperwork you'll need for marriage can vary from one city to the next, so I can only tell you the process for Lünen.

If you don't already have one (or yours is too old), you'll need a certified copy of your birth certificate with an apostille. Since you're already in Germany, you'll need to get a Familienstandsbescheinungung (marital status affidavit) from the consulate, which will be a dual-language document. The marital status affidavit is not the same as the Ehefähigkeitszeugnis, contrary to what the internet will tell you. Getting the waiver for the Ehefähigkeitszeugnis is what takes extra time. You might need a Verdienstbescheinigung (earnings or bank statement); they told my fiancé I would need one, but they never asked for it. Take those documents (and any other they tell you to bring), your passport, your fiancé, and an interpreter (only if necessary) to the Standesamt to file the papers.

They told us it would take 2-8 weeks to hear back from them because the Oberlandesgericht had to process the waiver. We heard back in 2 weeks and were told they needed a new marital status affidavit because the one I brought with me didn't specifically say I had never been married--stupid missing phrase--and that they needed a letter stating how I was making a living, which we thought was pretty obvious due to my lack of income. We took those in by the end of that week and got the OK to move forward just under 2 weeks later. All in all, it took a grand total of 5 weeks for us to get our date set.

As for work permits and such, I'll be finding out about that soon enough. I've read that some people get their residency permits very quickly while some others take ages.

You won't have to take the A1 test if you're applying for your residence permit after entering the country without a visa and getting married. It's one of the perks of being from a short list of countries that includes the US.

2001.

does any one know the process of gay marriages ... ;(

In 2006 I (male) married my German fiancee (female) in Germany. Here are some notes from what we had to do:

First, we planned to marry in a different Kreiswerwaltung from the one in which she was registered. This complicated things since her records had to be sent to the Standesamt of the area we wanted to marry in and we had to meet with the Standesbeamte/beamtin in both areas.

As an Auslander, in order to apply for a marriage license I had to submit:
* An original copy of my full birth certificate, showing my parents' names.
* A certified translation of my full birth certificate... translation must be by a Übersetzer certified for official documents.
* A "Certificate of no impediment" to marriage "CONI" from my home government.
* An apostille to the above CONI

My fiancee had to submit:
* Extract from her familienbuch (in lieu of a birth certificate I guess)

I also had to have an official "Dolmetcher" (interpreter) for both the "interview" with the Standesbeamte (to apply for a marriage license), and the Standesamt ceremony itself, because my German was not good enough at that stage to be able to figure out all the official blah blah. If your German is OK, you might be able to avoid this requirement, but I don't know what you'd have to do to prove your ability.

So we went to an "interview" with the Standesbeamte. We took:
* me, fiancee, and Dolmetcherin
* my passport
* my fiancee's personalausweis
* € to pay for them to look over the certificates. about €70 from memory.

We had to sign a big form which had all the information we'd submitted before on it, this was the "Anmeldung der Eheschließung". It also has sections about marital status, (single, divorced), children from earlier marriages, choice of surnames after the marriage. For our trouble we got a Bescheiningung über die Anmeldung der Eheschließung, basically a license to marry anytime within the next 6 months.

We then went to the other marriage office, in the district in which we intended to marry, and booked the date and venue for the Standesamt itself. I have no records of what that cost, but from memory we paid for the ceremony itself, extra because we were getting married on a Saturday, for a familienbuch for ourselves (optional) and for some extra copies of the marriage certificate.

At the Standesamt itself, we had to again present our ID, our certificate obtained above, and then after a lot of talking and translations of that by the Dolmetcherin, a few "Ja"s in the appropriate places and it was all done.

We had a church ceremony later.

Also, my wife didn't change her name at the time, because it was going to cause all sorts of problems to do with out travel, but this is a very simple procedure to do any time afterwards. Just one form to file from memory.