Wedding in Ireland without Birth Certificate

Qiaonasen

Hi All.

I am just wondering is it possible to get married in Ireland without a birth certificate. My fiance is from aboard country and has a valid passport but recovering an birth certificate is proving impossible. Does anybody know if there is a way in Ireland to get around the birth cert requirement.

Can you use a witness to verify her identity. Is it really needed when she has a valid person. Anyone with any experience this matter please let me know.

garbeth

Your best bet would be to talk to a registrar. Only they can tell you what is required and if there is any way around the both cert requirement. Give them a ring or call into your local office.

Gatica

I'd imagine you'd have to go through a judge, as they can authorise a marriage sooner than the 3 months notice required. The birth certificate is one of the essential documents when giving notice to marry. I would think the registrar should be able to advise you as to how to go about your situation, as I can't think the normal process would apply then.
I had my birth cert but they wouldn't accept it without an apostille, which I couldn't get except by going to country of origin. They don't give two hoots about whether it's difficult to get a document.
Just hope there's a way around it by some other legal means.

Faith

She'll need an apostille stamp on her birth certificate if she's not born here, which is going to make life even harder for you. I'd say you have basically zero chance of being allowed skip it, to be honest.

Spanish Eyes

I think you will have to get married in her own country given the circumstances. Might be easier for both of you.

PhoenixParker

Faith wrote: »

She'll need an apostille stamp on her birth certificate if she's not born here, which is going to make life even harder for you. I'd say you have basically zero chance of being allowed skip it, to be honest.

Not all countries do the apostille stamp system and if they don't you don't need it.

At our first appointment (deliberately booked 6 months before wedding date to give us time) with the registrar we didn't have my husband's birth cert and we didn't think we'd be able to get it. We'd talked to the embassy already and they indicated that getting it would involve two or three years wait or a trip to the middle east and a month of negotiating bureaucracy when there.

So we presented our story to the registrar, and she did indicate that there would be ways and means around the birth cert requirement, but that they would require proof that all reasonable means to acquire the birth cert had been attempted.

So we headed back to the embassy with all of husband's documents to get some sort of a letter describing the impossibility of getting a birth cert, to be used in conjunction with citizenship papers of a second country + any other documentation we could get our hands on to maybe gain permission to circumvent the birth cert rule.

As it turned out he had a little booklet thing with his photo on it that was actually what his native country regards as a birth certificate. So embassy gave us a stamped translation (they're one of the non-apostille countries) and that was accepted as a birth cert.

Is it possible, well our registrar did indicate that with extreme caution and ooodles of proof, the rule has been waived in the past. However, it's not an easy or guaranteed route.

lazygal

Faith wrote: »

She'll need an apostille stamp on her birth certificate if she's not born here, which is going to make life even harder for you. I'd say you have basically zero chance of being allowed skip it, to be honest.

Not always the case. My husband wasn't born in Ireland and his birth cert is a credit card type one. It was accepted no questions asked and we never heard of an apostille stamp during the process. He brought his Irish passport with him, along with the passport from his country of birth just in case.
I got the impression some countries were 'flagged' more than others when it came to serious checks. And also the couple themselves, the registrar gave me the impression some stood out a mile as arranged marriages for EU visas or whatever.

Qiaonasen

Hi Guys.

Thanks for all the responses. I will call in to the registrar to discuss it but it is a bit difficult because we are both living abroad at present. I might just try it in her country.