We at Getting Married in Denmark, created this comprehensive and detailed guide to help you with which documents are required to get married in Denmark.
This will help you understand exactly what documents will be required from you, plus any additional factors that may be important when considering a wedding in Denmark and to help you avoid any errors that could compromise your marriage application.
All marriage applications must be made via the Danish Agency of Family Law (AFL for short). They aim to respond to all applications within 5 business days, however, if there is anything wrong or missing with your application, this can cause long delays – sometimes up to as much as 2.5 months during busy periods.
We are here to help you avoid these delays!
The document requirements to get married in Denmark vary greatly depending on where you come from, where you legally reside, your civil status, and whether or not you have children.
Each of these factors will have an impact on which documents you will need to provide. Below we have broken down the documentation requirements into comprehensive sections:
Each of these sections will go into detail to help you understand not only what is required but also why!
If all the information below still feels a little overwhelming, or there is something you’re still unsure about, you can also contact us directly and we can tell you exactly what would be required for you and your partner – and for free!
We are here to help and advise, and we love to chat! 😃
Let’s start with which documents you don’t need to get married in Denmark!
Because, when it comes to marriage between multinational couples, we understand that couples are often faced with huge bureaucratic hurdles and lengthy paperwork lists in their respective countries of current residence, before they eventually turn to Denmark.
And because couples have been through these difficulties and paperwork hurdles, there is still the misconception that more documents than are actually necessary must be provided as part of a marriage application in Denmark.
Below are the 2 most common documents that we regularly get asked about, that are NOT needed for 99.9% of couples to get married in Denmark!
Birth certificates can, for many people and for a variety of reasons, be difficult to obtain and as such, as a general rule*, there is no requirement for your birth certificate to be provided as part of your application to get married in Denmark.
*Since the AFL was brought into being in 2019, we here at GMiD have been asked to provide an original birth certificate for 1 person. That’s 1 request in 5 years!
That request was in specific relation to a divorce document, where, as part of that country’s divorce process, the divorce was only considered final once the divorce was noted on the birth certificate. The country in question was Tunisia.
The AFL doesn’t usually ask for Single Status Certificates, which have been scrapped as a necessary requirement in order to get married in Denmark since 2019, for nearly all couples.
However, there are a few very rare occasions where they can sometimes ask for a Single Status Certificate. IF this is necessary, it will be in combination with your divorce papers to show that the divorce has become final*.
A Single Status Certificate or is known by various different names depending on the country issuing it; in Denmark, it’s called a “Civilstandsattest” (Single Status Certificate); in the UK it is a Certificate of No Impediment, and in Germany, it is called a Ledigkeitsbescheinigung.
*This has only been requested in instances where the divorce papers do not explicitly state that the divorce is final and is not a requirement for 99.9% of couples.
As a general rule, all couples will need to supply the following documents for both partners in order to get married in Denmark.
This is the only ‘official’ document that is required for everyone. If you want to enter or remain in Denmark and get married here, both you and your partner will need a valid passport, or – if you are from an EU/Schengen country (Ireland excepted) – an EU ID card.
As part of the document requirements to get married in Denmark, your passports must:
🗸 Have at least two blank visa/stamp pages left in them
🗸 Have been issued within the last ten years
🗸 Be valid for at least three months beyond the length of your stay in Denmark*
*If your passport has less than four months of time remaining before it expires, then the length of the Certificate of Marital Status (Prøvelsesattest), i.e. the period you will be given to marry in Denmark, will be limited in time based on this.
The Declaration of Truth is a legal document that you and your partner need to sign and is a standard PDF form supplied by the Danish government.
We, at GMiD, will provide this form and help you with completing and signing it
Signing the Declaration of Truth means you are making a legally binding statement that all the information you supply within your marriage application is true and correct, and that your supporting documents are real.
This document is important because it is a criminal offence to lie or use fake documents, which might result in a monetary fine or even prison time.
A signed Power of Attorney document approves us here at GMiD to help you with your marriage application, and to speak and act on your behalf and with your permission.
We, at GMiD, will provide you with this form to sign.
We require this document to enable us to submit your marriage application, stay up to date with the status of your application, and contact and handle interactions with the AFL on your behalf.
Depending on your personal situation, some couples will need to provide additional documents to get married in Denmark. These requirements can vary – again though this depends on each of your specific circumstances..
Below is a list of the additional documents that you may need to provide in order to get married in Denmark, and guidance on each.
What type of visa do you need to get married in Denmark? Well, there are a few answers to this, and some visitors don’t need a visa at all!
For a full and in depth look at visas and the rules and requirements for getting married in Denmark, take a closer look at our article dedicated entirely to visas!
For a summary on what is required, see below (click on each for further information).
As long as the visa is valid on the date of your wedding, you have not exceeded the duration of your permitted stay, and it does not explicitly exclude travel to Denmark, then you can get married in Denmark on a Schengen C Visa.
Please Note: The C visa can be issued for varying lengths of validity periods and varying different number of days within the Schengen area. It is your responsibility to make sure you adhere to the rules of your specific visa to ensure you will legally be in Denmark for your wedding. If you have exceeded the number of days you are allowed in the Schengen, the town hall will refuse to marry you.
As long as the visa is valid on the date of your wedding, you meet the 90/180 rule when travelling around the Schengen (where applicable) and it does not explicitly exclude travelling to Denmark, then you can get married using a D visa.
Please Note: The D visa can be issued for varying lengths of validity periods and varying different number of days within the Schengen area. It is your responsibility to make sure you adhere to the rules of your specific visa to ensure you will legally be in Denmark for your wedding. If you have exceeded the number of days you are allowed in the Schengen, the town hall will refuse to marry you.
If one or both partners are from outside the EU/Schengen Area and live in an EU/Schengen country then you will be required to provide your residence permit.
A residence permit or residency permit is a document that allows you to stay in a country other than your home country for longer than you would be allowed to as a short-term visitor.
A residence permit might allow you to reside in the country that grants it indefinitely; or it might have a fixed end date.
This might be a residence permit for Denmark itself, or for a different EU/Schengen country from which residents are also allowed to enter Denmark.
For instance, if you have a residence permit from another EU country, this could serve as one of your required documents to get married in Denmark, even though the residence permit isn’t for Denmark itself. This is because most residence permits issued within the Schengen area allow free movement around the Schengen.
Please Note:
The 90/180 day rule applies to residence permits issued in the Schengen and essentially means you cannot travel outside of the country your permit is issued for to any Schengen country for longer than 90 days in 180.
Neither can you be issued a residence permit for one Schengen country, and then reside in a different Schengen country using that residence permit.
To do so would be considered an overstay, and as a result you may not be able to get married in Denmark.
If either you or your partner have ever been married before, that previous marriage must be legally ended before you can get married in Denmark.
This means you’ll need to supply either a final divorce decree (or divorce certificate) or a death certificate to prove that the prior marriage has legally ended and that you’re free to marry again.
Getting this right is really important, and being unable to provide a final divorce decree, (or divorce certificate) or death certificate can stop you from getting married entirely!
What often makes this particular area complex is that every country (and in the US, every state) issues a different version of a final divorce decree and there are different processes for having a ‘final’ decree issued.
For example, in Germany a divorce is only considered as ‘final’ once the Rechtskraftig stamp has been added to the document.
So, what is important to remember, wherever in the world your final divorce decree is issued, is that usually the divorce is only considered final (from the point of view of the AFL) when stated and signed as such by a judge.
We’ve handled and resolved a wide range of issues with death and divorce certificates from all over the world, and we’ll help you to get things right the first time.
🗸 If you or your partner have been legally married before – in any country – you will need to provide a final divorce decree or death certificate, proving by law that the marriage has been dissolved by divorce or death.
🗸 If you or your partner have been married and divorced or widowed more than once, you only need to provide the divorce papers or death certificate of the most recent marriage, not those for the prior marriage(s) too.
🗸 If you or your partner have previously been in a registered partnership with someone else, you will need to provide a dissolution decree or certificate or death certificate for the registered partnership in order to get married in Denmark.
🗸 If you and your partner are currently in a registered partnership with each other, the bad news is that you have to formally dissolve the union with each other and get the paperwork to prove this before you can get married in Denmark!
It isn’t possible to convert or “upgrade” your existing civil union to a legal marriage in Denmark instead.
✘ If you or your partner were previously married to someone else in a union recognised by your religion but not by the law, you do NOT need to provide a death or divorce certificate to get married in Denmark.
✘ If you and your partner are married to each other under a union recognised by your religion but not by the law, the good news is that you do NOT have to divorce from that union to marry each other under Danish law!
As mentioned earlier on, getting the divorce papers or a death certificate is really important for getting married in Denmark without problems.
However, the three most common methods of splitting up with a former husband or wife are often taken to mean the same thing, when in law, they’re viewed very differently:
Divorce
A divorce is a legally recognised and completely final end to a legally binding marriage between two romantic partners.
Once a divorce has been issued and the divorce has become final (or absolute), both former partners are free to marry again.
Annulment
Annulments are uncommon; legally, an annulment means voiding a marriage or declaring it invalid, as if the marriage never really happened in the first place.
Annulments are also recognised in law, and may be issued in place of a divorce in exceptional circumstances, such as if one of the partners was already legally married to someone else, or misrepresented themselves in order to marry; for instance, to try to get citizenship benefits.
If you were married and received a legal annulment, then you are free to marry again.
Separation
A separation is not the same as a divorce or annulment, because during a separation, the two partners in the union are still legally married to each other, and so, are not free to marry again.
A separation may be part of the process of attaining a divorce and may be permanent or temporary; but if you and your former partner are only separated but not divorced, or your marriage is not annulled, you are not free to marry again at this point.
A death certificate is a document that is produced by the authorities after a person’s death. It is to prove that the law recognises this person has died.
If you are legally married to the person at the time of their death, then the death certificate acts as proof that you are no longer legally married, and are free to remarry again, when the time is right.
Please Note: The death certificate must list the other partner as the then spouse or husband. Some death certificates do not list this information, in which case, on top of the death certificate, a copy of the marriage certificate of the previous marriage is also required.
If you do need to provide a death certificate or divorce certificate as part of the requirements to get married in Denmark, you may need to have the certificate legalised first.
We’ll talk about what this means in more detail later on.
However, if the divorce certificate or death certificate was issued in the USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, Turkey, or an EU member country, it is all ready to use as it is.
A birth certificate is a formal document that verifies and documents the birth of a child, and this is one document that even adults need to produce to prove their identity or place and date of birth occasionally.
If you and your partner have children together (that is where both of your names are stated on their birth certificate), you will need to supply the birth certificate for your child or children as one of the required documents to get married in Denmark.
If the birth certificate does not list the father, then additional information to prove the fatherhood, such as paternity recognition, a DNA test etc. can be accepted.
If you, your partner, or both are in the military and stationed in a Schengen country, you will need to either provide permission from your Commanding Officer or your Military Orders before you can get married in Denmark!
If you are a civilian, working for the military in a Schengen country, then in this instance you will need to provide your SOFA stamp.
These are required to show legal stay within the Schengen, without the need for a visa or residence permit.
If you and your partner legally reside at the same address then you will be asked to provide evidence of this as part of your marriage application to the Danish authorities.
This would need to be a recently dated letter showing you legally share your residence together.
We can advise you on the types of documents that are accepted.
Finally, we’ve left the most complicated-sounding document you may need to get married in Denmark until last! That said, this document isn’t quite as complicated as it sounds.
It is only required if you OR your partner (but not both of you) are a permanent resident or legal citizen of Denmark, and the other partner is not an EU citizen either.
In this instance you need to read and sign, agreeing that you know the rules Denmark has in place surrounding family reunification. This is known as an 11b declaration.
Want to know exactly what documents you and your partner need to get married in Denmark?
Send us your name and email and we will get back to you shortly with your free required documentation list.
So, now you’ve got all of the documents you need; you can just post them off with your application, right? Wrong!
But don’t worry, you’re almost there! 😊
There are just a few other processes you need to potentially need to be aware of, to ensure your application goes smoothly and you’re permitted to get married in Denmark without any problems.
With our expertise and experience we are able to advise you whether or not your documents will need to be translated or legalised and if so, provide you with information on how to obtain these often vitally important additional requirements.
Because the Danish Agency of Family Law needs to be able to read your documents before being able to approve your application for marriage, unfortunately, it’s not always possible to only submit your documents in their original language (depending on the original language used).
This means you might need to have certain documents professionally translated before being able to submit them (in combination) as part of your application.
The Danish Government accepts documents written in the following languages:
So if your original documents are in one of these languages, then there is no need to get them translated.
However, if your documents are in any other language, you will need to get them professionally translated into one of these three languages before they can be submitted.
In the meantime, any time-sensitive documents that have a fixed validity period might be running out of time, and so this is something you will want to avoid.
Legalisation of documents – known in some countries as authentication or notarisation – is the process of certifying and verifying that an important document is legal and genuine, so that it can be properly recognised and used for its intended purpose.
Some official documents required to get married in Denmark that were issued by another country may have to be legalised before they can be submitted in support of your marriage application.
One of the most common – and yet, easy to avoid – reasons for applications to get married in Denmark being delayed or rejected is because of missing legalisations.
Generally, it is death certificates, final divorce decrees and divorce certificates that need to be legalised. Do note that not all death or divorce decrees need to be legalised, with this requirement depending on where the documents were originally issued.
Sometimes, the Danish authorities will request that other documents be legalised too, but this is less common.
If the country where your document was issued is a Hague Convention Country, you might be asked for an Apostille Legalisation.
This is basically a universal legalisation certificate that can be used across all Hague Convention countries to verify a document’s validity, without the need for additional legalisation procedures.
If the country that issued your documents is not a Hague Convention country, you will need to go through a slightly different process to get your documents legalised as part of your application to get married in Denmark.
Learn more about how to Get Married in Denmark Fast if you are in a rush.
So, we’ve covered all the important required documents you need to know about for marriage in Denmark, but there are just a couple of other things you need to know before you get started!
Things like; how your documents need to be provided and how long your approval for marriage in Denmark is issued for, may also have an impact on when you decide to submit an application for marriage in Denmark.
So please take a moment to read through these other important considerations before making your application to the authorities in Denmark.
We will help you work out what time frame works best for you, as well as guide you through getting your documents absolutely perfect so that you can follow through with the requirements YOU have for your wedding day in Denmark.
All of our services are fully inclusive of helping you to provide and then submit your documents in the correct format to meet the requirements of the Danish government.
One of the main reasons couples must go through this application process is so the Danish authorities can ensure that all couples who get married in Denmark are in genuine and stable relationships.
The authorities are actively looking for couples who are entering into what is called a Pro-Forma marriage – this is a marriage that takes place solely for the purpose of gaining rights to live in the EU via marriage.
In order to determine whether couples are engaged in a genuine relationship, they want to see ‘proof’ of your relationship.
If this information is insufficient then you will certainly be asked to provide more information or may even be asked in for an interview!
We will use our vast experience to help make sure your relationship document is perfect!
The chances are that most or all of your documents are in paper format, and you could be forgiven for thinking that you would need to supply them in this original format; however, this is not the case!
All of the documents required to get married in Denmark must be submitted digitally, either in PDF or image format. You cannot post off or hand in paper documents as part of your application.
The AFL is incredibly specific and very particular about how the documents need to be supplied to them and this is one of the main stumbling blocks for many people who aren’t familiar with the exact requirements to get married in Denmark. Making a mistake in this area is one that can cause long delays in processing your application.
Seemingly simple or insignificant errors such as documents not being clear enough, corners ‘chopped off’ images or the lighting being too dark can result in an application being delayed as the AFL will respond to ask for documents to be resupplied or for further information.
While the AFL aims to respond to applications within 5 business days, if they respond to ask for further information, then during busy periods this will add significant delays.
Once your application for marriage in Denmark has been approved, you will be issued with what is called ‘A Certificate of Marital Status’.
The Certificate of Marital Status – or Prøvelsesattest, as is called by the Danish authorities – is not the same thing as a Single Status Certificate, and this is very important to remember, to ensure that you don’t confuse the two!
In order to ensure we don’t generate any confusion ourselves, in this section we’ll use the Danish name of Prøvelsesattest for the document in question, just to be safe.
As previously mentioned, the Prøvelsesattest or Prøvelsesattesten is a document issued once you and your partner have received approval of your wedding application to get married in Denmark.
Prøvelsesattesten is valid for a maximum of four months after it is issued.
You will not receive a copy of the Prøvelsesattesten as this is an ‘internal’ document that is issued by the Danish government and is sent directly to the town hall you have chosen to get married at.
However, you will receive a letter from the AFL stating your approval to get married in Denmark has been granted and that your file and Prøvelsesattesten has been sent to the town hall.
After those four months (or shorter in some cases), the certificate expires, and you will not be able to get married in Denmark.
It is not possible to extend the original certificate past the four-month period either; if you did not get married in Denmark during the approval period issued to you, you would need to make a brand-new application (and pay the application fee all over again) to get a new one.
Also read this article that contains helpful info about this thing.
If you’ve taken the time to read about the documents required to get married in Denmark and the other considerations you need to think about too, it is understandable that you might be feeling a little daunted by it all!
However, the requirements to get married in Denmark are much more relaxed than they are in most other countries, and Denmark remains one of the fastest and easiest places for international and multinational couples to get legally married without problems.
Here at Getting Married in Denmark, we can help with this; just check out our reviews and testimonials from other couples! We have been helping couples get married in Denmark since 2014.
Trying to get married in other countries if you or your partner aren’t citizens there can be hugely confusing, and can rarely be achieved without the support of costly attorneys.
Such lawyers generally charge a high premium and often take a very long time – all of which is billable – getting you to the end goal, if they manage it at all.
One of the main reasons why Denmark is such a popular destination for international and multinational couples to get married is because cost-effective and easy-to-access services like ours here at Getting Married in Denmark are available to assist with the whole process.
Ultimately, we can actually save you money by making sure you get things right the first time, and don’t suffer from the financial (and emotional) impact of avoidable delays or application rejections.
We are not lawyers with penthouse offices and expensive suits; we are simply committed, highly experienced professionals, with a proven track record of over 8000 successful marriage applications made with our support and guidance.
Our goal is to provide excellent customer service with a personal touch, and to ensure that your plans to get married in Denmark go ahead without stress, delays, or any other avoidable problems.
If you have any questions about the documents required to get married in Denmark or if you’re ready to begin your application assisted by experienced professionals, please let us know.
We will be so happy to help you with any queries you may have about the documents required, the process, or any concerns you may have about how to get started.
Also read this article that contains helpful info about this thing.
Yes, most definitely, people from all over the world have been coming to Denmark to marry since the 60s and today around 20,000 foreign couples come to Denmark to marry every year.
Many of these couples are in multinational relationships who choose to journey to Denmark for their special day to avoid cumbersome bureaucracy in their residing countries.
Some couples are just looking for somewhere for a discreet elopement and others have bigger celebrations planned in a different country.
Denmark welcomes people from all nations, and we think this is pretty awesome!
Yes, getting married in Denmark with a tourist visa is absolutely possible.
You don’t need to be residing in Denmark to get married here. We know this is a requirement for many countries, but it’s not a requirement in Denmark.
You can get married in Denmark even though you’re not a Danish citizen or a resident.
It’s no problem if you have a visa, permit, or use your visa free days. As long as you legally enter the country, you can get married in Denmark.
You can read more about the visa types you can use to get married in Denmark on our website here.
Once we have all the documents from the couple, we work very quickly to process your application and then we usually receive your approval within a week.
Although we do advise our couples that it can sometimes take up to 4 weeks depending on how busy the Agency of Family Law is at that point, it can be much quicker than this.
This entirely depends on your circumstances; what documentation is required from you and exactly when and where you want to get married. It also depends, to a great extent, how quickly you are able to supply the required documentation to us in the required format.
When we receive your approval, we then need to book your appointment and the time this takes varies depending on the town hall.
Some are quick at replying, whereas others take a week or so to get back to us.
If you’re in a rush, we would advise a town hall for you which is quick with their communication and also has plenty of availability.
It’s easier to get married in Denmark, simply because the bureaucracy is much lighter than many other countries.
You don’t need to jump through as many hoops or provide as much paperwork and so the whole process is much quicker.
Also, once you’re here in Denmark, it’s very comfortable and easy to navigate.
Denmark has a great infrastructure and is very welcoming to foreign visitors. Most Danes can speak English too.
The whole experience of Getting Married in Denmark is just lovely from start to finish, especially with our support!
If you wish to change your surname after your marriage in Denmark, you will need to do this in the country in which you legally reside.
It is not possible to change your surname either at your wedding ceremony or afterwards in Denmark if you are not legally residing here.
So, you would need to contact the relevant authorities in the country in which you are a legal resident, register your marriage there and while in the process of doing this, ask how to also start the process of changing your surname.
There is no one ‘official’ rule on this, unfortunately, and it does actually depend on which town hall you get married at.
Some town halls will allow you to do this and some strictly will not.
If this is something you need, please contact us directly and we will be able to advise you as to whether or not this is possible, depending on the town hall you are married at.
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