faye_h

Hi there,

Not posted for a while but am after some advice if anyone can help???

Having recently got engaged we're looking at heading home to England to get married because all our family are still over there.

We want a civil ceremony and I'm getting really confused with all the legal implications and the need to give notice of marriage. Some people and websites are saying that you need to be in the UK for 15 days before and others are saying 16 days plus a further 7 before that!! All very mixed messaging

As most are probably aware - annual leave isn't great over here and we can't afford to take more than a month off work. We'd also like to fit in a small honeymoon on the way back to NZ. If we have to be in the UK for 23 days before the wedding I don't think we'll be able to do it!

Does anyone have experience of this? Do you know if it's 15, 16 or 23 days in the UK or if we can give notice in NZ?

Thanks,
Faye

MrsFychan

Congrats on the forth coming nuptials

I think it depends on individual councils/Registrars. Could you not get a family member living in/around where you want to get married check out the requirements?

I know from when we got married 12yrs ago out of our own living area we had to register with both councils and have Bands (?) posted at both places. We also had to go and register with the Registrars for the council we were marrying in.

simonsi

Banns - basically notice so anyone can object if they want/need to

We married from Saudi in 1996, had Banns read in the church on the 3 weekends prior but we only had to attend the Sunday before the wedding. Not sure if it has changed since (or is different for different venues)...

ellenl

Hi
I got married to my NZ partner in June, luckily we were there for a few years but we still had to give notice to the registrar (not in our local city) which was different to the normal way of doing it!

The website below should help you, the info is all there

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/vi...g/marriage-cp/

Good Luck

janeyk

I have had 2 staff do this and is as follows
You need to meet a residency requirement of being in the country 8 nights (9 days) and then you need to wait 15 days before you can get married.
another staff member here had a Church wedding and I think it was even longer!
Another friend gave up in the end and got married here and then flew to the UK for a blessing and party which takes no time and can be arranged quicker

faye_h

Thanks for all the feedback. I've since spoken with the British Consulate 3 times, Internal Affairs twice and even called the local Registry Office in UK.

Finally found out that I can give notice from NZ which cuts out the 15 days Janeyk mentions but still have no idea how long the residency requirement is. They seem to think it will be either 7 or 21 days. Looks like I'll be making another lengthy phone call to the UK tonight!

I'm almost tempted to spend the money and elope to Vegas instead!!

TommyLuck

If I had my time again ...

janeyk

Faye double and trip check as one of my staff was given the wrong advice by the consulate and immigration (as her partner is Kiwi this turned out not to be the problem but the office clerks interpretation) Certainly of the 4 couple I know all of them have had to spend several weeks in the UK to achieve their dream