Need to get Married ?

Hello all, I need some advice fast.
I'm hoping that many of the expats here are ex military and have settled in Germany, its specificaly those people who may know of a solution for me.

Background, I'm ex army, left in 98, and i'm currentyl engaged to my loverly girlfriend who works as a civilian for the Army in JHQ at Rheinndahlen.Hello all, I need some advice fast.
I'm hoping that many of the expats here are ex military and have settled in Germany, its specifically those people who may know of a solution for me.

Background, I'm ex army, left in 98, and I’m currently engaged to my lovely girlfriend who works as a civilian for the Army in JHQ at Rheindahlen. As a civil worker in Germany she has been provided with an Army quarter near the base. The quarters patch is specifically for single people with each 2 or 3 bedroom house issued to single civil servants or teachers. Roughly about 100 houses.

I worked in Iraq as a protection consultant till June this year, when we had saved enough to marry. My fiancé was worried sick with me working there and asked me to leave, so I quit. I subsequently moved in with her into her single issued quarter.
We marry on 10th Feb next year in St Lucia, only 90 odd days from now and will be returning to the UK for xmas and the flights to the Caribbean.

Now to the problem. Some busy body, I presume the local German estate warden has reported me and my fiancé to the Families office as me living here for 6 months. Fair enough, hands up, but they want me out right away. The German bloke obviously wants the rules enforced.

I have no where to go to, unless friends on the same patch will put me up in their spare rooms, which is possible, or unless we ruin the whole wedding planned for February, and marry as soon as possible , for me to get dependant status in the eyes of the army.

It really is a pain in the ***.

Can anyone advise me on either, how to postpone the army from booting me out, or if it comes to it, how quickly to get married in Germany. Is there a Vegas equivalent here that we can marry in short notice ?

(Is there an echo in this room?)

Yes... there's a Vegas, 'cept here they call it Denmark.

I gather you dont work in JHQ but are just living there. This puts it all as a big problem because to the Army you are a civvie so you have no right in the house. To the German authorities you are an illegal here. ie you have not registered here.
Be careful it could get you into a lot of bother.

I know that getting married here, the wait is not as long as it was before. But you still have to have an address where you are registered... and have to go to the British Consulate in Düsseldorf. lots of paperwork involved.

How to help, go round and kick the warden up the jacksy..
apart from that i suppose you have told the Families Office that you plan to get married..

You can do it in Denmark pretty quickly but nothing in Germany is fast. My wedding took 4 months to arrange here and included me having to get new birth certificates with date stamps that proved the copies were less than 6 months old and posting the Banns at the consulate in Frankfurt and waiting the minimum 28 days to see who objected. Google Denmark weddings and see what is advises. Either that or do a quick trip to Vegas, it is probably cheaper and easier to do that than pay for the Denmark trip as you will have to liase with a company who can get around the minimum residency requirements. How about Gretna?? do they still do the quicky weddings??? Ryanair fly to Scotland pretty cheap!!

I have a website somewhere for a Denmark wedding co, check back in a while and i'll post it

I'm assuming from your post that your American. What about flying back and getting married in the US (or UK if your British), would cost more but be less hassle.

Getting Married

Tying the Knot

Name Changes

Above posts are from TT, havn't read them but they should have enought helpfull info. Warning before you post, do a search first, TT er's are real picky about that.

Danish wedding

here it is, can't vouch for them but I know a few people who got married in Denmark to save the hassle of doing it here

Thanks for the fast replies,

Nope, I'm British through and through. I hadnt really thought of the German registration, havign lived here myself whilst in the army. Once married i woudl of course be inder thr cover as a dependant, but untill then , hmm another problem to worry on.

Denmark :-) it may come to that thanks for the link.

but would UK not be cheaper then and almost as fast as Denmark? I guess Denmark makes more sense if one of the couple ain't an EU citizen?
Good luck anyway

Hows the Queensway and the Marley doing? havent been to JHQ in a long time...
Worked there in the late 70's early 80's...

When we got married two years ago, there was a lot of paper work involved but the consulate doesn't have to be given notice any longer. What is important though as has already been written, you do need an address where you're registered at.

Denmark:

http://www3.kk.dk/Topmenu/English/Marriage/Information.aspx

I got married in Copenhagen in April of this year. It cost 500Kr = 67 Euros - plus all the travel and accommodation.

If you have been divorced, you have to send you Decree Absolut to an office there to be checked.

Both of you have to go to give notice and they give you a date for the wedding - four to six weeks later. You need your passports, ideally proof that you are NOT resident in Denmark (e.g. an Aufenthalterlaubnis) or Schengen visa for non-EU people.

The ceremony can be in Danish, English or German and the marriage certificate is in all three languages - it is recognised here in Germany without any translations, stamps or simlar nonsense.

Getting married in the UK is easy if both of your are Britiish - if not, there are a load of restrictions, introduced last year.

Good luck!

since he is british and she is german, if I understood everything right, they could aswell do it in Germany then where they live?
6 weeks should be possible here aswell and since you all made it sound that it would be soooo difficult here in Germany, I thought UK was easier and faster and less paper work but your post makes it sound like it is not

according to the local standesamt when we enquired a few weeks ago, the only exotic bit of paperwork you'll need is a certified translation of your birth certificate which is less than 6 months old. They then have to check up on that (not sure what, put it in an in-tray and leave it there to see if it runs away probably) which could take "up to 6 weeks", at which point you get the date for the wedding.

at least I think that was what they said (it certainly sounded like a lot less hassle than I was expecting) - although it may well be different here in Maekelborg to what it is where you are due to the different laws in different Länder...

stupid question but in which country is Maekelborg? :$

Plattdeutsch for Mecklenburg

I thought you were German!

ja, aber ich spreche kein Plattdeutsch

"according to the local standesamt when we enquired a few weeks ago, the only exotic bit of paperwork you'll need is a certified translation of your birth certificate which is less than 6 months old."

This seems to vary by region - at the Standesamt here their website says:-

"Bei Verlobten mit deutscher Staatsangehörigkeit = telefonische Beratung möglich.
Bei Verlobten mit anderer Staatsangehörigkeit = Termin für Beratung vereinbaren: Persönliche Vorsprache ist erforderlich."

i.e. We will make it all up as we go along. Some people (foreigners) seem to be quoted a ridiculous list of documents to find.

Apparently, the new UK restrictions apply to people "under immigration control" - whcih does not include UK or EEA citizens. The Uk should therefore be still easy for people from the EU.

I suppose the best thing is to look and ask the relevant authorities to find the easiest place to get married.

Call Gwen (or send an E-Mail) in the Consulate in Hamburg. She usually knows what to do - our oracle!

http://www.britischebotschaft.de/en/consular/hamburg/

My information, from 4 years ago, was that you pay a percentage of your earnings, or a set sum if unemployed, and the Amt sorts it out for you. It is a costly business in Germany.

You'll love this German word, but you may need it: Ehefähigkeitsbefreiungsschein... in simple terms, they check to see if you've been married before etc etc... in the UK or other lands

My advice is to check, double check and triple check. The Amt in question has a habit of suprising people at the last minute with the need for more paperwork, payments and refusals. They sometimes don't tell you something is missing and often you get a number of variations on what you can or can't do, or what you need and don't need.

Be thankful you are not Spanish, the authorities there sometimes refuse to accept the requirements put down by the German authorities.

It can take up to 6 months to get everything sorted. An Ehefähigkeitsbefreiungsschein should be valid for six months. If you are on a waiting list to get married, make sure the waiting list is less than six months long! This problem happened here in Hamburg for real!

If one or both partners do not speak German, you may be required to pay for a state recognised, qualified translator (not a friend that speaks both languages) if you want one or not! Ask first.

Many more things need to be taken into account as most people think.

Info from 2001.

If a decision is made for the UK, check to see how long you have to be registered in a certain parish, before you are allowed to get married in that parish. This question came up once, but it was not taken any further.

I got married in Germany a couple of months ago. I m english my wife is German.

As previously said the only thing you need is a certified translation of your birth certificate which is less than 6 months old. We were married within 8 weeks of starting the paperwork off (All paper work was finished in 5 weeks).

We got maried in a different town to where we live so had to pay an additional 33 euros.

Cost of birth certified translation was 50 euro
You need a Befreiung vom Ehefähigkeitszeugnis (which means you are not already married) 55 euro, the bill comes from court, arranged by the Standesamt.
Additinal paper work cost was 92 euro.
Cost of getting married ceremony etc which includes copys of paper work in english and the family book etc was 54 euro
But we got married on a Saturday in a castle so we had to pay an extra 150 euro.
We also had to pay for a certified translator for the wedding service itself only required if you don t speak that much German. But we found it useful for guests coming over from England cost for us was 120 Euro.

Total cost was 554 Euro.
Although without the Saturady cost/Translator etc it would have been 250 Euro.

Now does anyone know the cost of getting divorced

ref the registering in Germany, when i left the army I was already living in a privite German address, so registering was no problem. But I know there were several Germans employed and living on the British camp. So it should be possible to register with the Germans and live on the camp, or if you do get kicked off just use your friends address as you mentioned.

Germans on the camp...

isn't there a law that states a certain amount of Germans have to be employed within a garrison? I would be suprised to learn that they are registered there though. I was never in the army, but heard this while doing entertainment tours.

Plattdeutsch - isn't that a flattened German? Na ja, ein bisschen oder?

I never seem to have much success here with jokes the way the Brits do 'em.

Anyway there's loads of English words in Plattdeutsch and even some of the Dutch speak Platt - I believe...

http://www.german-embassy.org.uk/marriages...registry_o.html

Useful link!

Marriage!!!???

Why oh why oh why???

If you been married before, its an absolute nightmare to marry here

So, we're getting married in Denmark in two weeks time

Here's the details they sent Bov Kommune

why is that, Richard?
All you need apart from what you need anyway, should be your divorce papers?

your link says:
The documents I will need from you is;

Birthcertificates
Registration of Adress issued by your authorities in your Municipality. – Not older than 2 Month.
Registration of Family-Status, issued by your authorities in your Municipality, but only if you never have been married before. And this certificate schould also not be older than 2 month.
If you are divorced – The Final Degree
If you are widow – Deathcertificate.

what else do you need in Germany?

I got married in Scotland. We only needed birth certificates and we needed to book 4 weeks ahead. I think if either of you aren't British you also need some sort of sworn affadavit to demonstrate no impediment.

Hi Hannah,

The authority we asked said they needed all my wedding papers and both divorce papers (translated), some kind of "authority to marry" from the UK (also translated). Plus they said, as we've got children, and she's children from a previous marriage, it would be very, very complicated. Or, they didn't really know what they needed, which with my experience with ex-DDR authorities is usually the case

We get a nice holiday with the kids before Christmas as well.