Registration of Marriage

Foreign nationals may register marriage in Denmark, provided that their stay in Denmark is legitimate, and that they can prove that they meet with the requirements set down by the Danish marriage legislation.

According to the Danish Marriage Act and the rules prescribed by the Danish Ministry of Justice, and based on information provided by the Copenhagen City Hall's Marriage Office (Københavns Magistrat, 1. Afdeling), the following documentation is required when a foreign national wishes to register marriage in Denmark:

Original birth certificate and valid passport. Note: If your name has been legally changed since the issuance of your birth certificate or passport, you should present an official court decree to this effect.
Persons under the age of 18 may not contract marriage without permission from: Københavns Overpræsidium, Hammerensgade 1, 1267 Copenhagen K. Tel: 3312 2380.
If one of the parties is under guardianship, documentation of the guardian's consent to the marriage must be presented.
Divorce papers or death certificate must be forwarded to Københavns Overpræsidium, Hammerensgade 1, 1267 Copenhagen K. Tel: 3312 2380 for approval before you come to Copenhagen. See "Verification of Thai documents".
The Copenhagen Marriage Office advises that the parties should plan to stay within the city limits at least 14 days.
The Marriage Office will charge a fee for the service.

Registered Partnership

Two persons of the same sex can have their partnership registered provided that at least one of the partners is a Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, or Swedish national who resides in Denmark, or provided that both partners have resided in Denmark for the last two years before registration.

Thus, neither two foreign nationals nor two persons residing abroad can have their partnership registered in Denmark. (More info, only in Danish: //www.retsinfo.dk).


Verification of Thai documents

The Embassy’s experience is that the Danish authorities require that prior to a Thai national can enter into marriage in Denmark this person must have his/her Thai documents verified by the Embassy.

The certificates that the Embassy needs to verify in this connection are:

Original civil status certificate issued by a Thai district office*
Original divorce certificate if the Thai national is divorced or
Original death certificate of the Thai national s deceased spouse
Original name change certificate if the Thai national has ever changed his/her name.
Original birth certificate (does not need to be verified)
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The above documents need to be verified – meaning that the authenticity of the certificates needs to be confirmed. The Embassy therefore requests that the District Office that has issued the documents in question verifies the genuineness of the documents to the Embassy in writing. It usually takes 2 weeks to 3 months from the Embassy writes to the District Office until we receive the reply from the District Office.

Furthermore, the documents must be translated to English/Danish and these translations need to be stamped by the Embassy. If the certificates have already been translated to English/Thai, please send the translations to the Embassy as well, as we need to proofread and stamp the translations if they are correct, otherwise we will ask an external translator to make (new) translations.

The Embassy’s fees in verification cases:

Verification Fee DKK 675.00 (the fee in THB is adjusted to the present exchange rate)
Legalisation Fee DKK 160.00 pr. stamp (the fee in THB is adjusted to the present exchange rate)
Translations, if any, THB 500 pr. page
EMS charge to Denmark (registered letter) THB 800
The documents are returned to the sender in Denmark with an invoice for payment of the Embassy's assistance when we have finished the case.
*In case the Thai national who is already staying in Denmark did not bring a civil status certificate, the Thai national can issue a power-of-attorney to a relative who can then contact the Thai District Office on behalf of the Thai national in order to have a civil status certificate issued.







Edited September 28, 2006