Can i marry you

This can be done through a simple administrative process or by having a full marriage ceremony. A civil partnership that was registered at a British consulate overseas or by British armed forces personnel may also qualify for conversion if you elected Scotland as the relevant part of the UK when you entered into the civil partnership and its details were sent to the Registrar General of Scotland.

As of 2 November , a civil partnership that was registered outside Scotland will qualify for conversion to a marriage if it hasn't been dissolved, annulled or ended by death. To change a civil partnership registered outside Scotland into a marriage, couples need to go through a marriage ceremony.

Your marriage will be recognised in Scotland. If you want to convert your civil partnership to marriage through the administrative process, you will need to make an appointment with your local registry office and take along a copy of your civil partnership certificate and photo ID.

You will be required to complete an application form. The district registrar will witness your signing of the form. The information will then be entered into the marriage register. If you want to convert your civil partnership to marriage by having a full marriage ceremony, you will have to give the usual notice and pay the fees associated with registering a marriage. When you convert a civil partnership to marriage, the civil partnership will end for the purposes of the law of Scotland on the conversion.

You will be treated as having been married to each other since the date your civil partnership was registered or from 5 December , whichever is later. The application form and guidance on changing a civil partnership into a marriage is on the National Records of Scotland website. The steps involved in organising a marriage ceremony are generally as follows but STEP 1 and STEP 2 may be equally important as deciding on a venue may give you an exact date:.

A religious or belief ceremony can be held anywhere agreed by the couple and the approved celebrant. A civil marriage can take place in a registration office or any other appropriate place other than religious premises agreed by the couple and the local registration authority.

You and your partner will each need to give notice to the district registrar for the area where you intend to marry. The notices must be given to the district registrar no earlier than 3 months and no later than 28 days before the date of the marriage.

The registrar must make details of your intention to marry available to the public for 28 days before you can get married. After 28 days, you will be free to marry within 3 months from the date that the notices were received by the registrar. In a civil ceremony the district registrar will keep the schedule until marriage. In a religious or belief ceremony, either you or your partner must collect it in person from the registration office because it acts as a licence for the celebrant to marry you.

Civil marriages are conducted by district registrars appointed by the registrar general. Religious or belief ceremonies must be conducted by an approved celebrant. A civil marriage ceremony can take place in a registration office or any other appropriate location other than religious premises that has been agreed by the couple and the registration authority, for example a stately home, a boat in Scottish waters or a hillside.

A religious or belief ceremony includes religious beliefs and other belief systems such as humanism. A religious or belief ceremony can be held anywhere for example on a boat or hillside as long as the couple can find an approved celebrant.

This is someone who is authorised to perform marriages. Both religious and civil marriages must take place at the time and place specified on the marriage schedule. If the place of marriage is changed, the district registrar must be informed and may make changes to the marriage schedule. There are no residence requirements for someone wishing to marry in Scotland, therefore citizens of any country can marry in any district they choose, provided there is no legal impediment to the marriage that is, it must not break the law.

District registrars must be notified and sent the relevant forms and documents. The marriage notice, which must be completed by you and your partner, can be sent abroad and returned by post. You do not need to be resident in Scotland during the waiting period between the giving of notice and the date on which the marriage can take place. However, if you are having a religious or belief ceremony, either you or your partner must collect the marriage schedule in person before the ceremony.

Addresses of district registrars can be obtained from any district registrar or the registrar general. The first legal step to getting married except if you are converting a civil partnership to a marriage through the administrative process is to give notice to the district registrar in the area where you intend to marry. Each person has to complete a marriage notice on a form provided by the registrar.

Find the marriage notice form and guidance on the National Records of Scotland website. If any of these documents is in a foreign language, it must be accompanied by a certified English translation that gives the registrar enough information. You should normally provide a full birth certificate, but you can use an abbreviated birth certificate.

The registrar might ask for a full birth certificate if:. If you cannot provide any of these documents, the registrar may accept other documentary evidence. If the name on your birth certificate differs from the name you normally use, you should complete the marriage notice form in the name that you are using now. The registrar will decide whether both your names need to be recorded.

The registrar enters the names of you and your partner and the proposed marriage date into the marriage notice book and onto a list of intended marriages. This is displayed either inside or outside the office. For the next 28 days anyone can inspect this list and if someone suspects that there is an impediment to the marriage, they can inspect the marriage notice book free of charge. An objection can be announced anytime before you and your partner are pronounced married.

It should be submitted in writing to the district registrar and will be considered by the registrar general. If the objection is, for example, a simple inaccuracy in the marriage notice, you will be notified and changes made. If the objection concerns the law being broken, the marriage process will be stopped while a full investigation takes place. If you're travelling to the UK from abroad to get married, you may need a visa or a permit. This will depend on where you're from, who you're marrying, and whether you intend to stay in the UK afterwards.

You can read more about coming to the UK to get married on the UK government website. People who are subject to immigration control and wish to marry in Scotland in a registration office must give notice in person or by post at a registration office.

Everyone wishing to marry in a registration office may be asked to provide proof of their nationality. If the registrar believes that you are entering or have entered a marriage for immigration purposes, they have a duty to report this to UK Visas and Immigration. The registrar must provide information including your marital status and your nationality. If someone wishing to marry in Scotland is subject to immigration control, special rules may apply when giving notice.

If so, you should consult an experienced adviser, for example at a Citizens Advice Bureau - where to get advice. After 28 days but no later than 7 days before the date of the marriage, the registrar can issue you and your partner with a marriage schedule. This is the initial record of the marriage.

In a civil ceremony, the district register will keep the schedule until the marriage. In a religious ceremony, either you or your partner must collect it in person from the registration office because it acts as a licence for the celebrant to marry you. If having to wait 28 days for the marriage schedule would cause serious inconvenience to you and your partner, you can write to the district registrar giving a good reason why you should be married earlier.

The final decision is with the registrar general. If either you or your partner lives in England or Wales, see Marrying in Scotland if you are not living in Scotland. If the marriage cannot take place on the date or at the place specified on the marriage schedule, the registrar must be informed of this. They will then either issue a new schedule or authorise the celebrant to make changes to the old one.

If the new date is more than 3 months after the date originally specified, the registrar general will either direct the registrar to issue a new schedule or require you to submit new marriage notices and start the procedure again. Civil marriages are conducted by district registrars, appointed by the registrar general. The registrar will conduct the marriage in their district registration or any other appropriate place.

You and your partner must provide two witnesses aged 16 or over who will be present at the ceremony and sign the marriage schedule. The registrar will make a short statement about marriage; they should be asked beforehand to indicate what form of words they will use. You and your partner must say the statutory vows.

You may wish to personalise your marriage ceremony by including readings, poetry, music or your own personal vows in addition to the statutory vows. It is not necessary to have a ring. If either or both of you cannot speak English, you must arrange for an interpreter to be present and are responsible for paying for their services.

At the end of the ceremony the registrar, you, your partner and the witnesses must all sign the marriage schedule. Opposite-sex couples can marry in a religious or belief ceremony conducted by an approved celebrant. That celebrant may be from a religion such as Christianity or Hinduism or from another belief system such as humanism. Same-sex couples can have a religious or belief marriage ceremony if the religious or belief body has agreed to conduct same-sex marriages and is authorised to do so.

There is no legal obligation or duty on a religious or belief body to conduct same-sex marriages. It is not unlawful discrimination for an individual celebrant or a religious or belief body to refuse to conduct a same-sex marriage.

You should be able to obtain a list of approved celebrants in the area where you wish to marry from any district registrar. It is possible for people over the age of 21 to apply to the registrar general for temporary authorisation to act as a religious or belief celebrant if they are affiliated to a religious or belief body and are supported by the office bearers of that body to carry out marriage ceremonies on its behalf.

This means, for example, that you could be married by a member of your family or a friend as long as that person meets the necessary requirements about religious or belief affiliation. There is more information about applying for temporary authorisation on the National Records of Scotland website.

Religious or belief marriages can be conducted anywhere by the religious or belief body concerned; they are not restricted to religious buildings. If you are getting married using a religious ceremony in England or Wales, there are different churches and procedures. Humanist celebrants are legally approved celebrants and can carry out marriage ceremonies. The Humanist Society represents its members, who do not believe in any religion but believe in taking responsibility for their actions and base their ethics on the goals of human welfare, happiness and fulfilment.

Find out more about humanist ceremonies on the Humanist Society Scotland website. In the case of a religious or belief marriage, you must ensure that the signed schedule reaches the district registrar within 3 days of marriage.

In a civil marriage, the registrar keeps the schedule after it has been completed at the end of the ceremony. Details are registered in the Register of Marriages and sent to the registrar general, who keeps it in the National Records of Scotland.

You can either pay for a copy of the marriage certificate at the ceremony or at a later date. If a person living in England or Wales intends to get married in Scotland to either a person resident in Scotland or a person resident in England and Wales who has a parent resident in Scotland, they may be able to give notice of marriage to the superintendent registrar in the district of England and Wales in which they reside.

However, the person they are marrying should give notice in Scotland in the usual way. If you or your partner lives outside the UK that is, you have not been resident for 2 years before submitting the marriage notice , you must submit with the marriage notice a certificate from your country stating that there is no known legal impediment to the marriage. If this is not possible, the registrar general may offer an acceptable alternative.

If not in English, such documents need a certified English translation. This is to show that there is no obstacle that would prevent you from getting married. If you wish to marry outside the UK, you will have to comply with the requirements of the particular country. You can get information about this from an embassy or official representative of the country in the UK. If you want to know if your marriage outside the UK will be recognised in the UK, you should speak to a solicitor.

Check our advice about using a solicitor. A marriage by proxy is when either you or your partner, or both of you, are not physically present at the ceremony. It may be extremely difficult to prove that a marriage by proxy is a valid marriage, both legally and for claiming benefits. Courts have made different rulings on the validity of proxy marriages. The central question is whether or not a proxy marriage is recognised as valid in the country where it took place and in the countries where you and your partner were domiciled at the time.

If you entered a proxy marriage before you were domiciled in the UK, you will need an expert opinion about whether the marriage is recognised in the country where it took place and so whether it is valid in the UK. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. The Truth About "Getting Abs". Your values align. This could mean: You both want the same things. You know you both want kids and expect to split the child care equally.

Or maybe you know you both want kids and he wants to take extended paternity leave. Maybe you've also agreed that you should each get 45 minutes to yourself to go to the gym every day, or you plan to buy a home and move to the suburbs in five years.

You know you're on the same page with things that matter most to you because you've discussed them. He works hard at his job, but you're his priority. If you ask him to go to an event that's important to you, he's not afraid to step out of the office to accompany you.

He'll figure out a way to get his work done, just as you would do for him. Related Story. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.