katherinious

Does anyone have any experience of how you go about getting married in the UK (civil ceremony) whilst living in Australia, just from the point of view of having to legally lodge your intention to marry?

To lodge your intention in the UK, you have to have lived there for the past 7 days and be able to prove your address with a bank statement or similar document. As this is impossible as we currently live in Australia, (on a 457) can you lodge your notice here instead?

And yes, I know it would be easier just to get married in Australia, but we get to have a bigger party this way

katherinious

I'm also going to contact the relevant authorities in the UK (obviously), I just thought that someone out there may have had a similar experience and would be able to share their experience. I know it's a long shot!

Pomster

we did this 4 years ago, but it was a pain.

Regulations in UK have changed in the last 5 years.
If you want a registry office job, you have to live in the borough 21 days prior to the wedding, for a church do, you need a special licence and to reside in the parish for 15 days. You have to have a connection with the parish before the vicar will even contemplate agreeing- as this is his/her perogative. (H's father lived there and was a regular church attender)

Hubby went back for 3 weeks before me, to meet the 15 day requirement, and complete all the forms,go to Westminster Abbey for some signatures etc.
Everything else was booked via the internet/blind but surprisingly we had a great time (despite the admin hassle!)

The other alternative is get married here, have a blessing there and the reception in UK...

Swerv-o

Firstly, congratulations on your impending wedding!

Now, let's see if I have got this right. You are currently both living in Australia on a 457 visa, but you want to get married in the UK for family reasons. And to have a big party obviously. I am assuming that you are both UK citizens, and that this has nothing to do with immifration - spouse visas and the like.

Now to get married in the UK, you have to post an intention to marry, which involves you having to prove your address etc, and to have been resident there for 7 days, which you obvously can't do, as you're living here. Have I got the gist of it?

I'm not sure about how you would go about it - At least with a civil service you won't have to faff about meeting vicars and parsons etc and having to gain theire approval for it. I am guessing that this effectively means that there can be no 'tourism marriagae' in the UK, unlike, say Las Vegas or some of the Pacific and Caribbean islands?

Can you not get a friend or parent to make a bill out in your name for a couple of months, then fly back fro a holiday and sort out the paperwork then?

It all seems a bit harsh to me.

S

Swerv-o

Have you considered getting married in Scotland? I've just had a look at this:

http://marriage.about.com/cs/marriag...p/scotland.htm

It appears that they don't have a residence period requirement necessary before they will allow you to marry, unlike stupid nanny state rule obsessed England. It may be a bit of a treck, but could well be fun. Images of the Scottish wedding in 4 Weddings are now flooding into my mind!

S

katherinious

Thanks for your responses guys! You're right Swerv-o, this is entirely unrelated to visas, citizenship or any of that stuff. We're just a couple of Brits who came out here together, don't want to permanently leave Oz yet but also don't want to get married in Oz.

Maybe the less complicated method would be to drop by Vegas on the way back to the UK! Though I do like to sound of a Scottish castle...

Swerv-o

It does sound kind of romantic doesn't it...

The Aussie chap I work with married his Scottish wife in Scotland. He says it was fantastic!

S

Deer Hunter

You could have a fake ceremony. We got married here at the registry and then 're-newed' our vows in the UK. This bypasses having to live there for the required time. You can also have the ceremony worded like a normal wedding complete with 'signing' the register. Half the people at our wedding didn't even know that we'd gotten hitched 6 months before the day.

esperanza

This is a really tricky one.... Have you thought about getting married somewhere part way - would friends and family go for that? Eg I love France, so would consider that.
Either way, you still have to organise everything from Oz - have you got helpful parents/inlaws whose tastes you trust?!

It's a kind of crappy situation, as it is so complicated to do it in GB from Oz, but obviously few people can afford to come out to Oz from GB...

Good luck with it though, let us know how you get on.

katherinious

Thanks for all of your replies, I knew there must be people out there that had been in the same boat. It does seem like an impossible situation and as we don't want to compromise on location, we're just going to delay for a couple of years. This isn't such a bad thing as it gives us the chance to fully concentrate our efforts and money on exploring Oz, with the thought of a wedding when we get back being there to counter-balance the moving-back-to-the-UK-blues. Every cloud and all that...

esperanza

That sounds like a good decision. You've got the rest of your lives together any way, what difference will it make if you wait another couple of years? And then you can have the place and the people that you want to make it exactly as you would like it to be - good for you! Enjoy your time in Oz.