Registering for Marriage - a few questions?

brbf

I recently got engaged and now we need to go through the process to get married. Long story short we are just doing a registry office marriage, we are going to postpone the big proper wedding for a while, but we need to get married now as her visa will expire in 6 months.

I've had a look at the websites and there is loads of info but I'm still kinda confused. I believe I have to make an appointment with CRS Appointments and bring all our details like passport, birth cert etc - and then make an appointment for more than 3 months time. My questions is do I need to know exactly where and when I'm going to be getting married? This does not really matter to be as its just a formality - but do I have to figure this out or can I go and ask them when is available etc?

What other things do I have to do, has anyone been through this that can offer advice please?
Thanks

tracey turnblad

brbf wrote: »

I recently got engaged and now we need to go through the process to get married. Long story short we are just doing a registry office marriage, we are going to postpone the big proper wedding for a while, but we need to get married now as her visa will expire in 6 months.

I've had a look at the websites and there is loads of info but I'm still kinda confused. I believe I have to make an appointment with CRS Appointments and bring all our details like passport, birth cert etc - and then make an appointment for more than 3 months time. My questions is do I need to know exactly where and when I'm going to be getting married? This does not really matter to be as its just a formality - but do I have to figure this out or can I go and ask them when is available etc?

What other things do I have to do, has anyone been through this that can offer advice please?
Thanks

Would you consider getting married in Belfast? I got married there as I got no end of hastle with my husbands birth certificate. Although he is a British citizen he is Bangladeshi born and they couldn't verify his birth certificate blah blah blah. I went up to Belfast myself with his stuff to register us and we went up in a day trip and got married in Belfast city hall. We had a ceremony in Spain a week later. Was so much less hastke than Dublin and you only have to give a couple of weeks notice

brbf

Wow! I did not know that. Yes I absolutely would consider that, anything to make it less hassle and if I can do it all in a day I'd be delighted. Would be great to do it sooner rather than later.

How do I find out more about this? Thanks for the info!

tracey turnblad

brbf wrote: »

Wow! I did not know that. Yes I absolutely would consider that, anything to make it less hassle and if I can do it all in a day I'd be delighted. Would be great to do it sooner rather than later.

How do I find out more about this? Thanks for the info!

Just google it they are also very responsive to emails. You need to go up before to register then you can pick a date. We had a little ceremony but only 3 in the audience as we had the wedding in Spain was a blessing really. I was soooo stressed over my husbands birth certificate and apostle stamps and all that Belfast was so straight forward

tracey turnblad

http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/community/births-deaths-marriages-civil-part/marriages.aspx

mickoneill31

Like Tracey I got married in the north (in Armagh). The Dublin Registry Office were making us jump through hoops (3 months to verify one form then 3 months for the next query) so I googled the closest one in the north. Gave them a ring and asked all the questions. Visited them once to fill in forms and arrange dates. Then went up a month later and got married. Very easy.

The only hassle was that because my wife was foreign we had to get a stamp in her passport from the UK embassy to say it was OK to get married in the UK. This was simple to do and only needed a visit to the embassy in Ballsbridge.

They were really friendly and helpful in the north. She told me they could get busy sometimes and have 3 or 4 weddings a week
Then when we were talking to her she looked apologetic and told me there'd be a fee for the marriage cert. "Here we go" I thought. Then she said it was something like £40. I can't remember exactly but it was insignificant.

Overall the wedding cost shag all and everybody who went to it said they loved it (although they could just be saying that).

godtabh

A friend of mine is getting married in Jan. He did his register thing here a while ago with his Brazilian girlfriend. He said it was a nightmare with a non eu national with limited time left on her visa.

brbf

Thanks for the help guys. My fiancee is also Brazilian so I need to avoid any problems. I called CRS a while back they said she needs a stamp on her birth cert from the local embassy. She went there today they told her they cant stamp it she needs to get it stamped in Brazil. This sounds ridiculous to me. Her visa expires in June, but she is going home to Brazil in feb/march, and worried she'll have problems with immigration getting back in. Ideally I'd like to be married beforehand.

I'll give the guys in the north a call tomorrow - but any other advice would be greatly appreciated

PhoenixParker

When I rang the registry office I started by booking the ceremony date and then booked in the notification appointment.
I basically just asked what slots they had free in the registry office on Fridays in May & picked the best one. Then pencilled in the notification for early January. It was all the one phone call.

Notification appointments are much easier to schedule then ceremony dates - there's much better availability, so call them and schedule the ceremony in early April then ask get the notification appointment set up for early January.

If you want to get married before Feb/March then go for the North or apply through the courts to waive the notification period.

SecretBride

As an English person I had all that hassle booking our ceremony here as I had no Apostille Stamp on my birth cert (see thread I posted Apostille Stamp!)

Didn't realise I could have gone up North!

Just one tip, we booked all of ours and were backwards and forwards to the office because of the cert......eventually confirmed it yesterday and they were saying how busy they get with bookings in January because of all the Xmas and New Year proposals, so wherever you go I'd say do it in the next couple of days or her visa could expire!

The Sun King

Was doing some reading on marriage and Visas expiring just a few weeks ago. The conclusion I came to was that if your wedding is scheduled for after the day her visa expires (and you're registered to be married etc) then the immigration office will extend her visa until just after date of the wedding. You will then be required to go back to immigration a few days after the wedding to show them the necessary documents.

Probably cost you 300e to extend the visa what would only be a few months though.

brbf

Thanks everyone for the advice. I contacted the Belfast office and as everyone said they were extremely helpful. They actually squeezed me in the next day so went up and registered for marriage and did the whole visa/allowed to be married thing right there. Then we get a letter confirming everything is ok so we have a date for our marriage. So glad to get it out of the way and not have to have the nightmare with the Irish office! Thanks again for all the advice everyone!