To get married in Denmark you must have what is known as a certificate of marital status (prøvelsesattest). This requires that you meet the conditions in the Danish Act on the Formation and Dissolution of Marriage (the Marriage Act).
If you live in another country but wish to get married in Denmark, you must meet the Danish conditions for marriage. This applies even if there are other conditions for marriage in the country where you live.
If one of you is a citizen of another Nordic country, you may, however, choose that this country’s rules concerning marriage should be applied. Read more about Nordic citizens here
To get married in Denmark, you must both have turned 18 years of age and you must both be unmarried.
If one of you has previously been married, the previous marriage must have been dissolved before you can remarry.
Marriage between close relatives is not permitted, and if one of you is under guardianship, the guardian must consent to the marriage.
Read more about the general conditions here.
In Denmark, pro forma marriage is prohibited. This means that the marriage must not be entered into if there is reason to suspect that the purpose of the marriage is to obtain the right of residence in Denmark, an EU country, in Switzerland or in another country covered by the European Economic Area.
Read more about the prohibition against pro forma marriage here
To get married in Denmark, you must be able to legally enter Denmark and stay here. There are different requirements for entering and staying depending on what country you are from.
You do not need to have entered Denmark at the time you apply.
Read more about legal residence and the documentation you must enclose of legal residence
When entering and staying in Denmark as the citizen of a country outside the EU / EEA, you must hold a valid passport or another approved form of travel documentation.
Requirements for your passport when entering Denmark
If your passport has a shorter validity period than the possible validity period of the certificate of marital status, the certificate’s validity period will be shortened. This means that the validity period of the certificate of marital status will be shorter than what it would ordinarily be.
For example, if the validity period of a certificate of marital status would ordinarily be 4 months, but the passport only has a validity period of 5 months at the time of the issuance of the certificate, the validity period of the certificate would be limited to 2 months.
In order for us to process your application and verify that you meet the conditions for marriage, we will request personal information about you and your partner. We will also request that you document that the conditions for marriage are met.
What documents we will request and the requirements for these documents depends on the answers you provide in the application, and what country has issued the documents.
If you are unable to enclose one or more of the documents we request, you should write this in the application form. It is important that you write why you are unable to enclose what we have requested.
Your signature on the application must be signed by hand in order to be considered a valid signature. Therefore digital signatures cannot be used, for example Adobe or MS Paint.
The requirement for your signature does not apply if you both have NemID/MitID.
Read more about what information and documents we recommend you have prepared before beginning to complete the application form.
In order for us to recognise the document, there may be special requirements for the documents you are to enclose in your application. This may include that the document should be recognised by an official authority – either with an apostille stamp or by way of legalization.
Foreign documents must be translated to Danish, English or German by a certified translator. This also applies to any apostille stamp. If the document has been legalised, all stamps etc. must also be translated.
Please be aware that this must be completed before the application is submitted to the Agency of Family Law (Familieretshuset).
Read more about the requirements for approval of foreign documents
If only one of you is a Danish/Nordic citizen or has a permanent residence permit, you cannot get married in Denmark without both of you having provided a declaration concerning knowledge of the rules on family reunification in the Danish Aliens Act. You must both sign an 11b declaration. This, however, does not apply to citizens of a EU country.
You should also read the pamphlet “Når I skal giftes - husk økonomien” (When you are getting married - remember your finances) about the effect of marriage on spouses’ shared financial circumstances
Read more about the declaration concerning knowledge of the rules on family reunification and find the 11b declaration and pamphlet here.
If you want a third party to assist you with the submission of a notice of marriage, you can grant power of attorney in writing. This may be someone from your family or a professional.
You must send the power of attorney with both your original signatures to us. For instance, you can send the power of attorney to us in a letter or attach it in the digital self-service solution. You can also grant power of attorney to a third party, while the case is being processed.
If you have granted power of attorney, and want to withdraw the power of attorney, you must give written notice to both us and the person to whom you have granted power of attorney.
Read more about power of attorney.
When you wish to get married, you must send an application – a notice of marriage – to the Agency of Family Law and pay a fee of DKK 1,800.
If the conditions are met, we will issue a certificate of marital status or marriage certificate depending on whether you want the marriage to be performed in Denmark or abroad.
A certificate of marital status/marriage certificate is valid for 4 months from the date of issuance.
If you are not married within this time period, the certificate is no longer valid and you must re-apply. When re-applying, you must re-submit all the documents and pay a new fee of DKK 1,800.
Read more about payment of fees and how to apply
The processing time for an international marriage depends on how much information we need before we issue your test certificate or make any other decision on your application.
There are four things that need to be in place before we can issue your certificate of marital status:
If we write to you for additional information - e.g. passport or ID card in better image quality, additional documentation of your relationship, missing required documents or missing legalizations of documents - you can expect to hear from us again within two months of receiving the additional information.