Documents required
Documents required
When giving or sending the marriage or civil partnership notice forms to the registrar each of you must supply the following:
- Your birth certificate
- If you have been married or in a registered civil partnership before and the marriage or civil partnership has been dissolved or annulled, a decree of divorce or dissolution or annulment or a certified copy decree.
- A decree of divorce or dissolution granted outwith Scotland must be absolute or final - a decree nisi is not acceptable.
- If a decree of divorce or dissolution has been granted outwith the United Kingdom a foreign divorce/dissolution questionnaire may have to be completed. Please contact the registrar for advice.
- If you are widowed, the death certificate of your former spouse or civil partner.
- Evidence of your usual residence (e.g. valid driving licence; utility bill, not older than 3 months; bank statement, not older than 1 month; most recent council tax statement).
- If you are domiciled outside the UK you may have to provide extra documentation. (For marriage, you may require a Certificate of No Impediment if your home is in a country outwith United Kingdom and you are subject to the marriage laws of that country.)
- Proof of Nationality
- A person born in the UK prior to 1983 obtains British citizenship automatically. Evidence of nationality that must be produced will be either a British passport or a birth certificate.
- For a person born in the UK after 1 January 1983, nationality is dependent upon the nationality of their parents at the time of the person's birth. A person who produces a birth certificate showing they were born in the UK on or after that date should produce a British passport or naturalisation/registration certificate from the Home Office. If this cannot be produced, evidence of the nationality of one of the parents will be required.
- People with nationality other than British will be required to produce a passport.
- If you are subject to immigration control you may have to provide extra documentation to that outlined above.
- If any of the above documents is in a language other than English, a certified translation in English must also be produced.
Do not include original documents when sending notice to us by post (photocopies only). We will arrange to see your original documents prior to your marriage ceremony or in the case of a religious/belief ceremony, prior to the issue of the marriage schedule.
If you are from outside of the UK immigration controls
If you are not a UK citizen you will have to provide extra documentation to that outlined above. In particular, a Declaration of Status by Non-UK Nationals form should be completed by all parties to a marriage or civil partnership whose nationality on their notice form is not shown as British.
If you have EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) status you must share your status code with the registrar. You can apply for your share code here. If a decision is still pending on your application for EUSS status , you should submit your Certificate of Application as evidence.
Information is available on Check if you need a visa on the GOV.UK website. Please also read the giving notice information (92 KB pdf) which details Home Office requirements.
Registrars have a statutory duty to report any marriage they suspect has been registered for the sole purpose of evading statutory immigration controls.
If you are in any doubt about what is required, or if you need further information, please speak to the registrar.