Under the Marriage Act 1961
there are certain obligations that you, as a couple
intending to get married, must meet prior to a
marriage ceremony being solemnised.
A Notice of Intended Marriage (NIM) must be lodged
with your chosen Marriage Celebrant no less than one
month and one day and no more than eighteen months
prior to the marriage being solemnised. It is not a
requirement to lodge the NIM with the Registrar of
Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM). If you do this
and decide to marry outside of the Registry you will
lose money and will have to pay extra to have the
NIM transferred to a Celebrant.
Under normal circumstances, the Notice of Intended
Marriage would be completed at your first meeting
with your Civil Marriage Celebrant and the required
documentation must be produced to the Celebrant at
that time, or certainly before the marriage can take
place. Both parties are required to give a minimum
month and a day notice. There are some exceptions;
for instance if a partner is overseas or interstate
and only one can sign that is acceptable. However,
if these circumstances do not exist then both
parties are required to give the month and a day
notice.
You are required to produce your original Birth
Certificate, or authorised extract of such
certificate. If you were born in Australia the
Marriage Act insists that there is no reason why you
can't produce your birth certificate. Most Marriage
Celebrants will be able to provide an application
form for you to obtain one should you not have it.
Although birth certificates are preferred, in the
case of persons born outside of Australia, a
Marriage Celebrant can accept an overseas passport
in lieu of the birth certificate. If that person
cannot produce their birth certificate or overseas
passport the Celebrant will take a Statutory
Declaration with details of birth date, place and
parents' names together with an explanation as to
why the birth certificate is not available.
IMPORTANT: An Australian passport cannot be
accepted under any circumstances and statutory
declarations only apply to persons born overseas.
In the case of persons previously married, an
original copy of your Decree Absolute or, in the
case of widowhood, an original copy of the Death
Certificate must be produced. These documents MUST
be produced before the marriage can take place, so
it is essential that you give yourself adequate time
to acquire them if you have misplaced them. There
are occasions when a marriage is "annulled" and
where this happens documented evidence must be
produced.
Prior to your wedding, both partners will be
required to sign a declaration, under the Marriage
Act 1961, stating that you believe there is no legal
impediment to the marriage between yourself and your
partner. This is a legal document and calls for
honesty at all times.
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