Never sent back Marriage Registration form (MRF)

mossy99

Hi,

Myself and my husband split up after a few weeks of marriage. He was having an affair and so we went our seperate ways.

When we got married, we obviously signed the MRF after the ceremony but due to us going on honeymoon and then seperating we never actually sent back the MRF and so never received a certificate.

Does that mean we are legally not married? From reviewing threads your supposed to have sent it back within one month. Does this mean we have to still get a divorce??

littlejp

We lost our MRF and have had to jump through a few hoops to get a replacement.
I'm no expert but I'd imagine in your case you still need to submit it and then proceed with the divorce rather than just call it quits now.
Contact the marriage certificate office.

cruais

Hi,

We got married during the summer and we were never given back our mrf after the wedding.

We still havent received our certificate, but I assumed the priest sent it back?

Now im worried!

mossy99

Thanks for feedback.

I thought i could just apply for a decree of nullity or something like that..

littlejp

mossy99 wrote: »

Thanks for feedback.

I thought i could just apply for a decree of nullity or something like that..

I'd say you have to finalise the marriage before you can do that.

littlejp

cruais wrote: »

Hi,

We got married during the summer and we were never given back our mrf after the wedding.

We still havent received our certificate, but I assumed the priest sent it back?

Now im worried!

That's what we assumed too then a year later, when we applied for Children's Allowance we found out that technically we aren't married.
I'd get onto your priest asap.

Peregrinus

mossy99 wrote: »

Hi,

Myself and my husband split up after a few weeks of marriage. He was having an affair and so we went our seperate ways.

When we got married, we obviously signed the MRF after the ceremony but due to us going on honeymoon and then seperating we never actually sent back the MRF and so never received a certificate.

Does that mean we are legally not married? From reviewing threads your supposed to have sent it back within one month. Does this mean we have to still get a divorce??

You are married. I'm pretty sure you have committed an offence of some sort by not sending back the MRF, but it doesn't invalidate your marriage.

If you want to be free to marry again you need to get a divorce (or a nullity decree, but divorce is much simpler) and in order to do that, you will have to sort out and complete the registration of your marriage.

As I say, I suspect you have technically committed an offence by not sending back the form, but hopefully you don't need to worry too much about that. The main concern of the registrar is to ensure that marriages do get registered; if you're pro-active about approaching him to sort the matter out you may get a bit of a lecture, but I don't see that they will want to have you charged or fined; they'll want to work with you to get the MRF back and the marriage registered.

Gatica

I realise it's the couple's responsibility to handle the marriage forms, however, I think it's a bit unfair for you to say cruais has committed an offence.
I don't think it's that uncommon to ppl to misplace their form or rely on the priest to handle it (clearly they never got the form back off their priest). It may be awkward getting the paperwork redone again, but it can be done. I'm sure the HSE is used to handling such situations.

littlejp

I would imagine that forgetting or losing it as in my case would not be regarded as an offence but deciding not to hand it in after a marriage has taken place could be looked at as an offence.

Gatica

in that situation I'd imagine so, as in fact you'd be married but leading the state to believe you weren't.
I didn't think that that was what Peregrinus was referring to.

Peregrinus

Well, I don't know that it's unfair, exactly. The obligation to return the completed marriage registration form within a month is imposed on the spouses. In many cases, no doubt, the celebrant returns it, and that's fine. But if it's not returned then it's the spouses, not the celebrant, who are legally answerable for that.

I haven't trawled through the Act to find out if non-return is an offence. I may be mistaken in saying that it is, in which case I'm mistaken, and I'll be happy to be corrected. But if, in fact, the legislation does make it an offence to get married but not return the completed MRF then I don't see how it can be "unfair" of me to point this out. I did try to put a positive spin on it; it's an offence that's not likely to be prosecuted if one of the spouses comes forward to acknowledge the error, and is co-operative about completing the registration process. Particularly in the circumstances outlined by mossy9, the authorities would have to be particularly heartless to prosecute, and I really don't see it happening.

Gatica

fair enough, I can see your point.
(I'm also not bored enough to read the Act... :rolleyes:)

tinkerbell

OP, I'd have to say you should contact the registrar's office and ask them. Did you get married in the catholic church? If so, you should look into an annulment rather than a divorce as then you are free to get married in a church again if you wish. I would imagine you'd have grounds for an annulment since he was cheating on you.

neemish

Have checked at work and it is the responsibilty of the COUPLE and NOT the priest to return the MRF to the State. It is strictly the property of the couple, which they essentially "lend" to the Church for the purposes of the day. Usually, someone like a close family member/groomsman is "assigned" to take the MRF after the Ceremony and keep it safe for the couple.

If priests have been returning MRFs, they are being obliging, but are not required to do anything with it.

tinkerbell

neemish wrote: »

Have checked at work and it is the responsibilty of the COUPLE and NOT the priest to return the MRF to the State. It is strictly the property of the couple, which they essentially "lend" to the Church for the purposes of the day. Usually, someone like a close family member/groomsman is "assigned" to take the MRF after the Ceremony and keep it safe for the couple.

If priests have been returning MRFs, they are being obliging, but are not required to do anything with it.

Yes, it is the couples responsibility.

Peregrinus

tinkerbell wrote: »

OP, I'd have to say you should contact the registrar's office and ask them. Did you get married in the catholic church? If so, you should look into an annulment rather than a divorce . . .

You can't get a [church] annulment unless you first get a [civil] divorce (or a civil decree of nullity).

ABajaninCork

Peregrinus wrote: »

You can't get a [church] annulment unless you first get a [civil] divorce (or a civil decree of nullity).

Are you sure about that? The Catholic Church does not recognise civil divorces. They will, however approve an annulment if the person wants to marry again in a Catholic church. An annulment can take anything up to five years as the paperwork has to be approved by Rome. I only know this as a friend of mine at home went through one (for the same reasons, unfortunately). Her civil divorce took six months. The annulment took 5.5 years!!!

The only thing for the OP is to get the MRF sorted as others have said. Then go for a civil annulment. It'll probably be granted due to the brevity of the marriage (poss non-consummation?). If they want to marry again, then no problem doing it civilly. Church wedding? If they want another Catholic wedding, then it's no dice unless a canonical annulment is granted.

Peregrinus

ABajaninCork wrote: »

Are you sure about that?

Yup.

There’s two issues here. First, as a matter of justice, the Catholic church expects people seeking annulments to deal properly and thoroughly with the consequences of the (real, if not actually marital) relationship they were in - sort out the finances and shared property, make arrangements for any children, etc. And the main way you do this is by getting a divorce with the associated financial, custody, etc orders.

Secondly, as regards marriage the Catholic church wants civil and ecclesiastical status to be aligned. They are uncomfortable about marrying people in circumstances where the marriage will not be legally recognized. I’m not saying they will never do it, but they would much rather not do it. So if you are looking for a church annulment, they really, really want you to have either a civil nullity or a divorce. If for some unusual reason that’s impossible, well, they’ll go ahead without it. But if it’s possible, then they expect you to do it.

So, in general, if you approach the church authorities for an annulment, one of the first questions they will ask you is whether you have a divorce (or a civil decree of nullity). and if the answer is “no” they’ll tell you to go and get one. And they’ll need some heavy persuading if for some reason you can’t or don’t want to.

ABajaninCork wrote: »

The only thing for the OP is to get the MRF sorted as others have said. Then go for a civil annulment. It'll probably be granted due to the brevity of the marriage (poss non-consummation?). If they want to marry again, then no problem doing it civilly.

A civil decree of nullity is generally more difficult to get, and more expensive, than a divorce.

Toots

I know someone at the moment who's going through the divorce/church annulment process and the advice their priest gave them was to apply to the church for the annulment and also start the legal separation/divorce proceedings a the same time. He said that in all likelihood the divorce will be granted before the annulment because the process is very lengthy for both, but usually a bit longer for the annulment.

OP, I'd say in your case your best bet is either have a chat with the registrar and see what the story is. It would probably be no harm to seek legal advice also.

ABajaninCork

Peregrinus wrote: »

Yup.

There’s two issues here. First, as a matter of justice, the Catholic church expects people seeking annulments to deal properly and thoroughly with the consequences of the (real, if not actually marital) relationship they were in - sort out the finances and shared property, make arrangements for any children, etc. And the main way you do this is by getting a divorce with the associated financial, custody, etc orders.

Secondly, as regards marriage the Catholic church wants civil and ecclesiastical status to be aligned. They are uncomfortable about marrying people in circumstances where the marriage will not be legally recognized. I’m not saying they will never do it, but they would much rather not do it. So if you are looking for a church annulment, they really, really want you to have either a civil nullity or a divorce. If for some unusual reason that’s impossible, well, they’ll go ahead without it. But if it’s possible, then they expect you to do it.

So, in general, if you approach the church authorities for an annulment, one of the first questions they will ask you is whether you have a divorce (or a civil decree of nullity). and if the answer is “no” they’ll tell you to go and get one. And they’ll need some heavy persuading if for some reason you can’t or don’t want to.


A civil decree of nullity is generally more difficult to get, and more expensive, than a divorce.

Like I say, I'm not too sure about the info here. Doesn't sound right to me. I've never heard of this. In all probability the OP'll probably get the civil divorce long before the canonical annulment anyway, if my friend's case is anything to go by.

I'll ask my priest about it, for curiosity's sake.