The procedure for registering a marriage: conditions, documents, application and documents for changing the surname

Marriage registration: who is allowed to get married and at what age

Marriage registration is possible not only for Russians who have official citizenship. The list of conditions for registering a marriage is indicated above . But there are other important aspects and conditions. These include the marriageable age of both parties.

In Russia, the legal age for marriage is 18 years old, but if there are some important circumstances, even sixteen-year-olds can get married. For example, pregnancy. If we are talking about a foreign citizen, then the minimum age is stipulated by the legislation of his country. As for stateless people, they can marry according to the laws of the country where they permanently live or where they spend most of the time.

Another important circumstance is the consent of both parties to enter into marriage. If there is no such consent, the relationship cannot be registered.

Which registry office should I contact?

Submitting an application is acceptable at any registry office . Previously, this could only be done at the place of registration of one of the future spouses. Please note that if an application is refused, you should ask for it to be in writing, so you can appeal it.

Good to know! Not all institutions are authorized to enter into unions with foreign citizens; it is worth finding out in advance whether the registry office has the right to register such a marriage.

List of documents

The standard list of documents that future spouses must attach to the application includes:

• personal identification materials - applicants’ passports;
• copies of the above documents;
• receipt of payment of state duty - three hundred and fifty rubles.

Read also: How to get a divorce certificate?

As for additional papers, they may be required in special cases.

List of documents required in special cases

Depending on the past and present of the future spouses, the registry office authorities ask to provide additional materials. Let's consider several special cases.

Second wedding

If one of the spouses was previously married, then it is necessary to provide the original certificate of its dissolution.
Please note that the corresponding stamp in the passport is not evidence, so you need to find the document or make a copy of it. It is important to know! You can get a copy of the divorce certificate at the registry office, where it was made upon presentation of your passport.

Until adulthood

According to the law, if there are good reasons, or rather pregnancy, it is permissible to register a marriage before reaching the age of majority - at sixteen years of age.

Depending on the specific situation, the following documents are submitted:

• permission from legal representatives - parents or guardians;
• emancipation document - a certificate recognizing a person as fully capable until he reaches eighteen years of age.

Marriage with a foreigner

When concluding a union with a citizen of another country, you will need to prepare the following package of documents:

1. Application for marriage registration, filled out in the foreigner’s native language with a notarized translation into Russian;
2. Official translation of a foreign citizen’s passport;
3. A certificate from the embassy confirming that the applicant has no other marital relationship.

Healthy! The procedure for marrying a foreigner is standard. The rules set out in Russian family law will apply to him.

Marriage to a prisoner

It is allowed to formalize a relationship with a person in prison if there are no grounds for refusal, that is, the newlyweds meet the basic requirements.

The registration procedure is as follows:

1. The applicant, who is at large, contacts the registry office and takes an application form;
2. The second citizen fills out the form in prison in the presence of a notary, who records the authenticity of the information;
3. On the appointed day, registration takes place at the correctional institution, where employees from the registry office arrive.

Statement

The application form is unified and approved by the Government of the Russian Federation.
Today, the form can be obtained either at any registry office office or downloaded from the Internet. Filling out is acceptable by hand or on a computer. The main thing is that the final document bears the signatures of the bride and groom. Attention! The date and signatures of the parties are placed in the presence of the registry office employees; this should not be done at home, as you will have to rewrite the application.

Filling out an application

The application itself consists of two parts - for the groom and the bride. They record their personal information, passport data, age and surname that they want to have after marriage.

The registry office employee checks the correctness of the information entered, clarifies the date chosen by the future spouses for concluding the union, and stamps acceptance of the application.

Sample

Let's look at an example of filling out an application for marriage registration:

Is it possible to apply alone?

As a general rule, both applicants submit an application. If for good reason one of the spouses cannot be present, then the documents will be accepted from one. To do this you will need to do the following:

1. Two applications are filled out - by the groom and the bride;
2. The applicant, who cannot be present at the filing, has his document certified by a notary.

One of the future spouses brings a complete package of materials with copies, which will also need to be notarized.

Can I apply online?

Today it is possible to submit an application online through the State Services portal. However, this procedure is only available if both future spouses are registered on the portal and have confirmed their identity. The procedure is described in more detail below.

How to withdraw an application for marriage registration

Until the official registration of marriage, citizens do not bear any responsibility to each other.
If you wish, you can withdraw the application, moreover, one of the parties can do this. It is recommended to notify the registry office in advance about the withdrawal of the application, but even if the applicants do not do this, but simply do not come on the appointed day, then no liability is provided. The state fee is not refundable.

On a note! Upon revocation, a person has the right to immediately apply for marriage either with another person or with the same person.

What does the registry office give out when submitting an application?

When submitting an application, employees do not issue any documents reflecting the fact that the materials were accepted. The date and time are indicated verbally. The exception is wedding palaces, where, as a rule, a beautiful invitation to the ceremony is issued.

Marriage registration: types of procedures

When considering marriage registration, it is important to highlight several forms of this action, since marriage can be of several types:

• Registered;
• Actual;
• Religious.

In order for a union to be officially recognized, it must go through a procedure at the registry office. The reason is that such registration entails legal consequences. In other words, such relationships give spouses not only status, but also new legal rights and obligations. You can find out more about them in the Family Code of the Russian Federation.

A de facto relationship is a union that does not entail actual registration, but it meets some requirements and conditions that relate to marital relations . For example, de facto spouses cannot inherit for each other, as is the case in official relations.

A religious marriage is a union that is concluded according to church canons. Moreover, they often try to combine the option under consideration with an official wedding. For example, a couple can undergo official registration, and then enter into a religious marriage. This option for legitimizing relations does not contradict the law in any way, but if we are talking only about a religious marriage, in essence this is an actual relationship that does not have full legal force.

Lukhovitsky Civil Registry Office department

Where is it issued?

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Application procedure

Those who are planning to get married, especially for the first time, need to know what procedure to follow in order to apply for the long-awaited marriage registration. It is worth noting that this can be done in two ways:

• 
  in person - come to the registry office or the MFC (more details about whether you can apply to the MFC and how to do this can be found here);

• via the Internet - on the State Services portal (more information about how to apply for marriage registration through the State Services portal can be found here).

If you are going to visit the registry office in person, then you do not need to make an appointment in advance, just choose a day and time that is convenient for you and come with your significant other, having prepared all the documents. The main thing is that the day of your visit does not coincide with a day off at the registry office.

If you pay the state fee through the government services website, there is a discount. In this case, you will have to pay 245 rubles.

On what days are they accepted?

Theoretically, you can submit an application for marriage on any working day of the registry office. Usually this is from Tuesday to Saturday inclusive, respectively, Sunday and Monday are days off.

However, it happens that applications are accepted only during certain reception hours, or on any working days except Saturday, when marriages are registered. You can also attend a sanitary day. Therefore, before going to the registry office, do not be lazy to call or check the application reception hours on the website of the selected registry office.

How long before the date of the celebration can I register?

Article 11 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation states that after filing an application, the marriage is registered within a month , which is given for reflection. However, in large cities, when there are a lot of people wishing to register a marriage, up to two months pass between the submission of the application and the registration itself, which, however, is not prohibited by law.

There are reasons that are good enough so that a couple does not have to languish in anticipation for a month or a little more:

• late pregnancy of the bride or the birth of a joint child;
• a threat to the life of one of the newlyweds due to a dangerous illness;
• the groom is drafted into the army or goes on a business trip to a hot spot;
• long business trip of one of the spouses.

It will not be possible to deceive the registry office; each circumstance listed above will need to be documented: a certificate from the antenatal clinic in case of pregnancy, an extract from the medical record in case of illness, etc.

Is it possible to choose a registry office and where to apply?

In accordance with Art. 25 Federal Law “On Acts of Civil Status” dated November 15, 1997 , state registration of marriage is carried out by any registry office of the couple’s choice. Since future spouses submit an application to the institution where they will soon sign, this provision also applies to this document.

Any excuses, for example, from Moscow officials that “the groom is registered in Tula, and the bride is in Taganrog, so go to your place of registration” are illegal and can be appealed to higher management or in court. Therefore, as you understand, only the future spouses decide which registry office to submit an application to, and subsequently enter into marriage.

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The practice of refusals occurs in many registration authorities, especially in provincial institutions, where the level of legal culture of both officials and the local population is inferior to that in large cities. Civil registry office employees, without hesitation, refuse to accept applications and subsequent marriage registration for nonresidents, and rejected couples, due to their incompetence, do not insist too much. According to reviews of newlyweds from the far corners of Russia , in 2015, unpleasant incidents occurred in the registry offices of Yakutia, Primorsky and Amur Territories, however, according to information from the same sources, the troubles were resolved out of court.

If the employees of the institution dictate to which registry office you need to submit an application for marriage registration, feel free to write an application with a request to accept documents for subsequent marriage registration, in which you must indicate the place of registration and actual residence of both of the couple. The appeal must be addressed to the head of the department in which the refusal was received.

In the event of an official refusal, the couple can act as plaintiffs in court against the registry office and its incompetent employees, which gives the right to cancel the officials’ decision, and also to claim the amount of moral damage. Situations are different, often the life of lovers on the eve of the wedding is not overshadowed by anything, but sometimes a couple expecting a child in the family or one in which one of the future spouses is terminally ill may encounter troubles. Such citizens want to quickly formalize the relationship, and delays on the part of the registry office employees can really cause significant moral damage.

Specifically, which registry office to choose to submit an application is also a matter of taste for the future spouses, and officials of several registry offices of one locality do not have the right to “throw” the couple’s documents at each other. The only limitation is that not all state registration authorities have a department that deals with the registration of marriages; in large cities there are often separate departments, for example, a department for registering deaths or births, an archive. In this case, the information must be additionally clarified by telephone, so as not to be in vain “waving a saber” in front of the officials.

Preparation!

What to choose - registry office or wedding palace - tips

In Moscow and other megacities, special departments are allocated for the registration of marriages - the so-called Palaces of weddings or special events (here you will find out what happens during the solemn registration of a marriage). What events are they intended for and who should sign at the registry office?

The civil registry office in the broad sense of the word is an institution that registers such acts of civil status as birth, death, marriage, divorce and change of name. If all these procedures take place in one room, then couples who have to sign their wedding in such a multifunctional department will probably face a situation on their significant day when Mendelssohn’s march will be drowned out by the cries of newborns, and the newlyweds will be followed by the dissatisfied glances of those divorcing and those who came witness the death of relatives. Agree, this is unpleasant.

In the Wedding Palaces, accordingly, only marriages are registered, so the bride and groom on the wedding day will be on the 1st “celebratory” wave with the rest of the spouses.

Therefore, for those who have not yet decided what to choose - the registry office or the Wedding Palace, we can give some practical advice:

• To register a marriage in a quiet family circle without pompous ceremonies or simple official registration, of course, a regular registry office is suitable. Even if a couple wants to somehow celebrate a joyful event, such a department must have a hall where the newlyweds and their guests (up to 10 people) can solemnly exchange rings, drink champagne and take a few photos as a souvenir, even on a weekday;
• if a magnificent wedding is planned, a lot of money has been invested in its preparation, and accordingly, a large number of guests, professional photo and videographers will be present, then it is better to choose the Wedding Palace. In such departments, the management pays more attention to the design of the hall, the arrangement of light, the convenience of those present, and the staff there are specially trained, are aware of all the “wedding” problems and traditions, and the musical accompaniment of the celebration is, as a rule, live. There is a lot to capture here, and photographs taken in the monastery of family unions will delight the spouses for many years;
• if a couple is in a hurry to sign, then you can submit an application to the registry office very quickly, especially if there is a Wedding Palace in the city. The main influx of couples, of course, will be concentrated there, especially in the summer-autumn period, so it will be possible to register a relationship in an ordinary department without standing in a huge queue.

Of course, the registry offices, where all events in life are registered, are different. The State cares about its image and does everything to remove the “Sovietness” from the lives of citizens. Departments are rebuilt, restored, improved, halls are decorated, staff are specially trained so that even in the farthest corner of Russia, newlyweds begin their family life with joyful memories and impressions of the wedding.

Category “Submitting an application to the registry office”

Category: Submitting an application to the registry office

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So it happened: the decision was made to formalize their relationship. In which registry office should this be done? What will it take? What are the features of writing and submitting an application, including via the Internet? In this section we tried to collect all the useful information on this topic. You will be able to familiarize yourself with sample applications, deadlines for submitting them, find out what is needed for this, how to pay the state fee, whether it is possible to pick up the application from the registry office and how to do it.