In Australia so can't be in person for notification of marriage

WeddingHelper

Really hope you can help. I'm helping my friend organise here wedding here, as she now lives in Oz with her fiancé and three kids. The venue is booked for Jan 18 and likely we will book a celebrant soon for a humanist ceremony. The big issue is that obviously the guys can't be here in person to do the notification of marriage three months in advance which is required to make it legal. Has anyone else had this issue? How did you get round it?

Peregrinus

Talk to them at the HSE. Under the Civil Registration (Delivery of Notification of Intention to Marry) (Prescribed Circumstances) Regulations 2010 reg. 3, the registrar can dispense with the "in person" requirement for the three-month notification if he is satisfied that either or both of the intending spouses are resident outside the state, and it wouldn't be reasonable or practical for them to comply with the "in person" requirement. They can then give the notification by post, fax, e-mail or whatever else is acceptable to the HSE.

I don't know, in practice, what evidence will be needed to satisfy the registrar that they live abroad, but it's unlikely to be anything too onerous.

Note that there's also a requirement for both of them to turn up, in person, at least 5 days before the wedding, and make a declaration of no impediment. You can get that 5-day period shortened, if the registrar agrees, but there's no power to dispense entirely with the requirement to turn up in person and make this declaration. So they should plan on having to do this shortly before the wedding and, if they want to do it less than five days before, they need to clear that with the HSE.

WeddingHelper

Thanks so much for this Peregruins. Really helpful