Marriage and weddings

To get married in Denmark, you must both be able to enter and stay in Denmark legally. Your partner can, for example, be here on a Schengen visa, as a citizen of a visa-free country or with a residence permit. If you submit your application for family reunification of spouses in Denmark while your partner is staying here legally, your partner can normally stay in the country while the case is processed (procedural residence). However, your partner may not work during that period.

If one of you is not a Danish or Nordic citizen, you must apply to get married through the Agency of Family Law (Familieretshuset), which checks whether you meet the conditions for marriage. You then receive a certificate of marriage eligibility (prøvelsesattest), which is valid for 4 months from the date it is issued. You are free to choose which municipality you get married in. You apply online with the Agency of Family Law and must use MitID if you have it. The application costs a fee of DKK 2,1002026, which must be paid before the case is processed. The fee is not refunded, not even if you are refused.

It is the Agency of Family Law that decides which documents are required. Basically, you must document that your boyfriend or girlfriend is staying legally in Denmark and is not already married. You must both be at least 18 years old and unmarried. Your boyfriend or girlfriend must therefore enclose photos of every page of their passport and documentation of their basis of residence, for example a visa and documentation of when they entered Denmark. The passport must be valid for at least 3 months beyond the date on which your boyfriend or girlfriend expects to leave Denmark. The Agency of Family Law may ask for a certificate of marital status from the country where they live (in English often called a certificate of non-marriage). Otherwise, you declare with your signature, under penalty of law, that you are unmarried. If either of you has been married before, you must document that the marriage has ended, for example with a divorce decree or a death certificate.

Before the wedding, you must also sign a declaration that you know the rules on family reunification in the Danish Aliens Act (a so-called section 11 b declaration). Signing it does not mean that you give up the right to apply for family reunification.

Contact the Agency of Family Law for the exact details, and read more on borger.dk about the conditions for marriage. Prepare in good time. Foreign documents usually need an apostille or must be legalised in the country where they were issued, and they must be translated into Danish, English or German by an authorised translator before you send the application. If all the information is in place, the Agency of Family Law normally processes the case within 5 working days, but if something is missing, processing can take considerably longer.

Unfortunately, ÆUG cannot advise on getting married abroad, because we do not have the resources to keep up with the rules and practice in other countries.

If you cannot get married in Denmark, or would rather marry in the foreign partner's home country, contact the authority in charge of weddings in that country, or the country's embassy, and ask which documents you need to show. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has guidance on getting married abroad. As a minimum, you can expect to have to bring a certificate of no impediment to marriage (ægteskabsattest), showing that you meet the conditions for marriage under Danish law, or documentation of your marital status. If your partner is not a Danish or Nordic citizen, you apply for the certificate of no impediment through the Agency of Family Law, in the same way as for a certificate of marriage eligibility. You get documentation of your marital status, for example a certificate of residence or an extract from the CPR register, from your municipality. Some countries require the certificate to be legalised or given an apostille by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before you travel.

You can also choose to get married in a third country altogether. A marriage entered into abroad is recognised in Denmark if it is valid in the country where you got married. However, it is not recognised if:

• you were not both present at the same time at the wedding, for example in a proxy marriage, where someone else says "I do" on behalf of one of you
• one of you was under 18 at the time of the wedding
• there are specific reasons to believe that the marriage is a marriage of convenience entered into to obtain residence in Denmark
• recognising it would conflict with fundamental principles of Danish law

Only in very special cases can such a marriage be recognised anyway. If you want to apply for family reunification of spouses, the Danish Immigration Service (Udlændingestyrelsen) also requires that you were both physically present at the wedding.

See the Agency of Family Law's overview of foreign marriages, which has specific information about a number of countries. The authenticity of the marriage certificate must be confirmed by legalisation or an apostille from the country where you got married. The Danish municipality may require the marriage certificate to be translated, unless the case can be processed without a translation.

If you live in Denmark and get married abroad, you should have the marriage registered with the civil registry (folkeregisteret) at your municipality as soon as possible, because your marital status affects your tax and the payment of benefits. If you live abroad, contact the municipality where you last lived. Remember to bring the original marriage certificate.