UK nationals married abroad - do we need to register the marriage in the UK?

Emanef

Hi guys

We got married in Mauritius a while back and currently live abroad, but should we register our marriage back in the UK? We're both UK nationals (born in England) and will be going back once current work ends within a few years.

Thanks

TonyMMM

No ....unless one of you is:

- a UK national marrying a foreign national before a UK consular officer in a country without legal registration facilities or;

- a serving member of, or attached to, the British Armed Forces

There used to be an option to deposit a copy of the marriage certificate with GRO, but that has been withdrawn.

Emanef

Ah, ok, so it's all fine then, for the UK at least.... we need to get it atested for the UAE to accept its validity!

Thanks Tony.

InsideInsurance

As long as its a legal marriage there then its good here too. It may just be for convenience that you register it here.

A lot of ceremonies abroad however are NOT legal marriages and other things need to be done in that country to get the legal aspects dealt with. So for example after you get married in Greece you have to go to the registrars office within 40 days to register it. I remember helping a friend who wanted the tropical beach wedding and they had to be in the country for 60 days before hand and then go to the capital afterwards to formalise it and then the certificate would be ready 3 months later and had to be collected in person.

Certainly our friend decided to do a secret registrars marriage here and then had the big on the beach ceremony a few days after to avoid the pains of doing the whole thing there.

Emanef

It was all done through a legitimate hotel (Beachcombers) in Mauritius and we went to the local authorities offices to get the permission, meet the registrar, etc. We did Mauritius as we were advised it was one of the few places we could get married without having to get permission from the UK or a UK embassy abroad. I just hadn't thought about it, but thought it was best to check!

Thanks again!

HPoirot

Did you have it apostilled by the Home Office in Mauritius, you may need that for the UAE.

TonyMMM

InsideInsurance wrote: »

It may just be for convenience that you register it here.

There is no option to register a foreign marriage in the UK (except in the very limited circumstances I posted above).

You are correct that a lot of people actually simplify things by legally getting married in the UK before/after having their "wedding" abroad.

InsideInsurance

TonyMMM wrote: »

There is no option to register a foreign marriage in the UK (except in the very limited circumstances I posted above).

I saw the GRO stopped taking overseas british citizen's as of january this year, or more accurately the FCO stopped sending them to the GRO for you. Didnt see anything about them stop taking them from citizens living here.

Emanef

HPoirot wrote: »

Did you have it apostilled by the Home Office in Mauritius, you may need that for the UAE.

Yes, it has a stamp on the back, just checked and it is the apostile thing.

Yes, I think we will need that to get it atested out here. Funny (or not?!) that they will insist on it but the UK will just effectively take our word for it!

HPoirot

LOL simply because there are agreements between UK and Mauritius, whereas the UAE is not even a signatory to the Apostille Convention so won't take anyone's word for anything (but may accept an apostille as proper attestation from Mauritius)...