How to get married or form a civil partnership

Both people must be 18 or over. The minimum age was raised in England and Wales so that marriage under 18 is no longer possible even with parental consent, and the age rules in the other nations have their own history, so check the position for the jurisdiction you are marrying in rather than assuming.

Both must be free to marry — that means single, divorced with the divorce finalised, or widowed. A decree nisi or conditional order is not enough; the final order must have been made, and the registrar will want to see it. Where a previous marriage or civil partnership ended abroad, the registrar may need to satisfy themselves that the foreign divorce is recognised in UK law, which can take time and occasionally requires a referral to the General Register Office.

The couple must not be within the prohibited degrees of relationship, which cover close blood and, in some cases, step relationships.

Both must have the capacity to consent, and consent must be genuine. Forced marriage is a criminal offence throughout the UK, and registrars are trained to identify it. Where there is any concern, protection is available urgently, including Forced Marriage Protection Orders.

Marriage and civil partnership are both available to same-sex and opposite-sex couples across the UK, though the dates on which each became available differ by nation and by type — same-sex marriage came later to Northern Ireland than to Great Britain, and opposite-sex civil partnership came later still.

Marriage and civil partnership produce almost identical legal consequences. The differences are largely symbolic and historical: the terminology, the availability of religious ceremonies, the way each is ended, and the way each is recognised in some other countries. Recognition abroad is the one practical difference worth researching if you have international connections, because a civil partnership is recognised in fewer countries than a marriage.

Book an appointment at the register office for the district where you live. Both partners must attend, in person, and each must have lived in the registration district for a qualifying period beforehand. If you live in different districts, each of you gives notice at your own local office. You cannot give notice by post or online, and you cannot give notice at the register office nearest the venue unless you happen to live there.

Give notice within the permitted window before the ceremony. There is a statutory minimum waiting period after notice is given, and notices are only valid for a limited time, so giving notice too early is as much a problem as giving it too late. Registrars will tell you the current dates — ask when you book the venue, not the week before.

Take the right documents. You will normally need proof of identity such as a valid passport, proof of address, and evidence that any previous marriage or civil partnership has ended. If your name has changed, take the evidence of that too. Where a document is not in English, a certified translation is usually required. Bring originals, not copies.

Expect the notice to be displayed. In England and Wales the notice is published at the register office for the statutory period, which is a public record of your intention to marry, including your names and the venue.

Book the ceremony separately. Giving notice authorises the marriage; it does not book it. Register office slots and popular approved premises are booked far ahead, and the venue and the registrar's attendance are two separate arrangements that both need confirming.

Pay attention to the venue rules. A civil ceremony must take place at a register office or at approved premises — a hotel, a stately home, a civic building that holds a licence. A religious ceremony must generally take place in a registered building, with an authorised person present or a registrar in attendance, unless it is an Anglican ceremony proceeding by banns or licence. Ceremonies outdoors are permitted only within the licensed boundaries of approved premises, and a humanist or other belief ceremony is not a legal marriage in England and Wales — couples wanting one hold a separate civil ceremony as well.

Since the move to a marriage schedule system, the paper register book has gone. The registrar issues a schedule which is signed at the ceremony and returned for the marriage to be registered electronically, and the certificate is issued afterwards rather than on the day. Mothers' names as well as fathers' are now recorded, which was not the case under the old register.

Where one or both partners is not a British or Irish citizen and does not have settled status or another exempt status, the marriage or civil partnership falls within the referral and investigation scheme. The register office refers the notice to the Home Office, and the statutory notice period is extended.

The Home Office may decide to investigate whether the proposed marriage is genuine. If it does, the notice period is extended further, and the couple can be asked to provide evidence and attend interviews. Failure to comply can mean the marriage cannot proceed and can have immigration consequences.

Plan around this. The extended period is not discretionary and cannot be shortened because a venue is booked. If you are in this situation, give notice as early as the rules permit and choose a ceremony date that assumes the longer period rather than the shorter one.

Coming to the UK specifically to marry requires the right visa. A Marriage Visitor visa allows someone to come to the UK to marry or form a civil partnership and then leave — it does not lead to settlement and does not permit work. Someone intending to marry and then stay needs a family visa route instead, and using the wrong one is a serious and common error.

Marrying a British citizen does not by itself confer any immigration status. There is no automatic right to remain, no automatic right to work, and no shortcut to citizenship. Any change of status requires a separate application on the appropriate route, with its own financial requirements, English language requirements and fees.

Getting married abroad and then bringing a spouse to the UK is a different process again, with its own evidence requirements about the relationship and about the validity of the foreign marriage. GOV.UK publishes country-by-country guidance on getting married abroad, including whether a certificate of no impediment is needed.

Inheritance changes immediately and dramatically. Marriage or civil partnership revokes an existing will in England, Wales and Northern Ireland unless the will was made in express contemplation of that marriage — so a couple who marry without updating their wills may find that the will each made previously is void and the intestacy rules apply instead. Scotland's position on revocation differs, which is another reason to take advice locally.

Under the intestacy rules a surviving spouse or civil partner inherits a substantial share, and often everything, which is the opposite of the position for an unmarried partner. An unmarried partner inherits nothing on intestacy however long the relationship, and must bring a claim against the estate to receive anything at all. There is no such thing in UK law as a common law marriage, and this is where that misunderstanding does the most damage.

Tax treatment changes. Transfers between spouses and civil partners are generally exempt from inheritance tax and from capital gains tax, and the unused proportion of one partner's inheritance tax nil-rate band can be transferred to the survivor. Marriage Allowance allows a lower-earning partner to transfer part of their personal allowance to a basic rate taxpaying partner. None of this is available to unmarried couples.

Pension rights change. Many occupational and public sector schemes pay a survivor's pension to a spouse or civil partner automatically, while cohabiting partners must usually be nominated and may face a discretionary decision. Check each scheme rather than assuming.

Next of kin status in practice becomes simpler, though the phrase has less legal weight than people think — a lasting power of attorney matters more than marital status when someone loses capacity.

Parental responsibility is affected in some circumstances, and so is the position on the family home. If one partner owns the property and the other does not, marriage creates home rights that can be registered against the title and that provide protection in a way cohabitation does not.

Consider the practical admin at the same time: notifying HMRC, updating wills, checking pension nominations, and deciding whether either partner is changing their surname — for which the marriage certificate, not a deed poll, is the evidence.

Scotland's system is different in ways that make it noticeably more flexible. Notice is submitted to the registrar for the district where the ceremony will take place, not where either party lives, and it can be submitted by post rather than requiring both parties to attend in person. That removes the residence constraint entirely and is why Scotland is straightforward for couples marrying away from home.

The marriage schedule is central. Once notice has been accepted, the registrar prepares a marriage schedule which must be collected shortly before the ceremony — normally in person by one of the couple — and which must be present at the ceremony and signed. Without the schedule the marriage cannot go ahead, and collecting it is a step couples forget.

Scotland licenses the celebrant rather than the venue. A marriage can be solemnised by a registrar, by a minister or celebrant of a religious body, or by a celebrant of a belief body. Humanist marriages have been legally valid in Scotland for years and are now conducted in large numbers. The consequence is that a Scottish ceremony can take place almost anywhere, including outdoors, on a beach or on a hillside, which is simply not possible for a legal marriage in England and Wales.

Civil partnerships in Scotland follow the same notice route through the local registrar, and Scotland allows civil partnerships to be registered by religious and belief bodies willing to do so, which is a further difference from parts of the rest of the UK.

Non-UK nationals marrying in Scotland are covered by the same referral and investigation scheme as the rest of the UK, and NRS publishes specific guidance on the documents required from non-UK nationals, which is worth reading before booking anything.

National Records of Scotland publishes the fees, forms and document lists, and the registrar for the district is the correct contact for anything specific. Do not rely on GOV.UK guidance for a Scottish ceremony — the residence rule, the schedule and the celebrant rules are all different.

Northern Ireland has its own civil registration system administered by the General Register Office for Northern Ireland, and its own marriage and civil partnership procedures. Marriage notice is given to the registrar of the district in which the ceremony will take place, on a prescribed marriage notice form, with a statutory notice period before the ceremony.

Both civil and religious or belief ceremonies are available. A civil ceremony takes place at a registrar's office or an approved venue; a religious or belief ceremony is conducted by an officiant registered to solemnise marriages, and the couple must obtain a marriage schedule from the registrar to be signed at the ceremony and returned afterwards. As in Scotland, the schedule is essential and must be collected.

Same-sex marriage became available in Northern Ireland later than in Great Britain, following regulations made in 2020 after the Northern Ireland Assembly was not sitting, and the associated arrangements for civil partnerships and for converting between the two were introduced through that legislation rather than through the earlier Great Britain statutes. Because the framework was assembled separately, check nidirect for the current position rather than assuming parity with England or Scotland.

Civil partnerships in Northern Ireland follow a parallel notice procedure through the registrar, with its own guidance and forms published on nidirect.

Certificates for Northern Ireland marriages and civil partnerships are obtained from the General Register Office for Northern Ireland, not from the General Register Office in England and Wales. An application to the wrong office is simply returned, which delays anything that depends on the certificate — including a name change or an immigration application.

Couples with a connection to more than one UK jurisdiction should check where the marriage will be registered before choosing where to hold it, because the register that holds the entry determines where certificates come from, and that has consequences for years afterwards.