Giving Notice of Marriage or Civil Partnership
Where can I give notice?
One of the parties to the marriage or civil partnership must reside in England or Wales. Where you can give notice will depend on your nationality as defined by the Immigration Service: a relevant national and a foreign national.
A relevant national is a British Citizen, an Irish Citizen or a person who has been granted EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) status.
A foreign national is an EEA national without EUSS settled status, EUSS pre-settled or pending application to the EUSS OR any other person from any other country.
If you are a Relevant National, you must give notice of your intention to the Superintendent Registrar in the District where you live. Please note this does not apply to the Church of England or Church of Wales.
If you are a Foreign National you and your partner must give notice together of your intention to the Superintendent Registrar in the District where one of you lives.
If you are unsure where to give your notice, it is the register office in the local authority area to which you pay your Council Tax.
If you and your partner are relevant nationals a notice appointment will not be booked until you have booked a date, time and venue for your ceremony with the Registrar in the District where the venue is located.
If you and your partner are foreign nationals, we highly recommend you only book a ceremony once you have a confirmed notice appointment with your local register office. We would also recommend that the ceremony date you choose is more than 70 days after the date of your notice appointment.
If you plan to marry in a Church of England or Wales and are a foreign national you will be required to give notice at the Register Office as outlined above. Banns cannot be read.
When can I give notice?
Notice cannot be given until you have decided on a venue.
You must have lived at your usual address for at least seven days in the district where you are giving notice.
Legally a notice cannot be given more than 12 months in advance. The minimum period between giving notice and when a ceremony can take place is 28 clear days.
If you are a foreign national or we are unable to confirm satisfactory EUSS status please be aware that the 28-day statutory notice period may be extended to 70 days and a fee will apply.
If you do not give notice within the timescales outlined then your ceremony cannot go ahead.
Currently we are able to offer appointments for persons who reside in the Wakefield District to give notice of their marriage or civil partnership where their ceremony is scheduled to take place in the next 20 weeks.
We are unable to schedule appointments for anyone whose ceremony is more than 20 weeks away.
How do I arrange an appointment?
Once you are within 20 weeks of your ceremony date please use the ‘Book Now’ button below to book your appointment at Wakefield Register Office or Pontefract Registration Office.
Unfortunately due to the additional demand for appointments on the registration service and significant resource pressures we currently have limited availability for notice of marriage/civil partnership appointments.
The date available on our online booking system is the next available date, please do not contact us by telephone to try and establish an earlier date as this won't be possible. However if the earliest appointment available would not allow 28 clear days to elapse before the date of your marriage please contact us on 0345 485 2888.
Please note that the booking system can only currently be used to book appointments for Marriages/Civil Partnerships taking place in England or Wales.
If you are booking an appointment and you are getting married outside England or Wales, please contact us on 0345 485 2888 to book your appointment.
An appointment for a relevant national takes approximately 20 minutes.
An appointment for any foreign national(s) (both parties) takes approximately 60 minutes.
If you have foreign divorce paperwork to prove you are free to marry/form a civil partnership an additional 20 minutes will be allocated for the appointment.
Getting married/forming a civil partnership abroad
It is important that you consult with the local authorities in the country where you are planning to be married or form a civil partnership to find out what you need to do.
Some countries may require you to give notice of marriage/civil partnership to the Superintendent Registrar of the District in which you live. More online information can be found here on the GOV.UK website.
If you need to give notice in the District in which you live please ensure you have read the information on this page before contacting us to make an appointment on 0345 485 2888.
At the end of the statutory waiting period, the paperwork for the marriage or civil partnership would normally be sent by first class signed for post, which carries a cost of £2.50 which the Registrar will need to take at your appointment. You also have the option to arrange an appointment to collect the schedule after the date they are due down.
Cancelling or rescheduling an appointment
You are required to give 48 hours' notice to cancel or reschedule your appointment. Should you fail to give the required notice, fail to attend or are late for your appointment you will have to pay for and arrange another appointment.
The cost of giving notice of marriage/civil partnership
- Notice of Marriage / Notice of Civil Partnership (per person) - Monday - Friday £35
- Notice of Marriage / Notice of Civil Partnership (per person) – Saturday £49 (£54 for appointments from 1 April 2024)
If you are a foreign national and are unable to provide a visa, claim to have documents you are unable to provide or you are unable to make an appropriate immigration statement your application will be referred to Immigration Enforcement and there will be an additional fee of £12 per person to pay at the appointment.
If your divorce, annulment or dissolution was granted outside the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man a full translation must also be provided, and a consideration fee will apply at the time of your appointment. If the document is considered at the Register Office the fee is £50. If the documents have to be forwarded to the General Register Office to be considered the fee is £75.
If you are giving notice to marry or form a civil partnership in a religious building in the Wakefield District or outside of England and Wales, at the end of the statutory waiting period the Schedule would normally be sent by first class signed for post, which carries a cost of £2.50 which the Registrar will need to take at your appointment. You also have the option to arrange an appointment to collect the schedule after the date they are due down.
Essential documents to bring
There are certain documents that you must bring to your appointment. If you fail to bring them or if the documents you bring are not correct or have expired, we will be unable to complete your notice and you will need to book and pay for a new appointment.
You will discuss what evidence you will bring when booking your appointment but it is your responsibility to check that the documents you intend to bring to the appointment are valid. You must check the documentation you intend to bring against one of the following checklists.
If you ARE a 'Relevant National' please check here
Mandatory evidence
- Evidence of your name, age and nationality.
- Evidence of your EUSS status (if applicable)*
- Evidence of your current address
- Evidence of your change of name (if applicable)
- Documents required to provide evidence that you are free to marry/form a Civil Partnership (if applicable)
- If your partner is NOT a relevant national you must also bring a recent passport-size photo
A EUSS status share code can be obtained at www.gov.uk/view-prove-immigration-status the shared code is valid for 30 days. You will have the option of sharing the code by email but we ask that they do not email this to us instead we ask that they bring the code with you to the appointment for us to carry out the check.
*If we are unable to confirm your EUSS status using the code provided you will need to give notice following the process outlined for a person who is a foreign national. The appointment will be ended, you will need to make a new appointment and pay the relevant fee
If your divorce, annulment or dissolution was granted outside the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man a full translation must also be provided and a consideration fee will apply at the time of your appointment. If the document is considered at the Register Office the fee is £50. If the documents have to be forwarded to the General Register Office to be considered the fee is £75.
If you are a 'Foreign national' please check here
If you are a foreign national you will need to attend with your partner to give notice at the same time. You cannot give your notices on separate days.
Mandatory evidence
- Recent passport photograph
- Evidence of your name, age and nationality.
- Evidence of your immigration status
- Evidence of your current address
- Evidence of your usual address if it is different to the address you have provided for the purpose of giving notice
- Evidence of your change of name (if applicable)
- Documents required to provide evidence that you are free to marry/form a Civil Partnership (if applicable)
If you are unable to provide a visa, claim to have documents you are unable to provide or you are unable to make an appropriate immigration statement your application will be referred to Immigration Enforcement and there will be an additional fee of £12 to pay at the appointment.
If your divorce, annulment, or dissolution was granted outside of the UK, Channel Islands, or Isle of Man a full translation must also be provided and a consideration fee will apply at the time of your appointment. If the document is considered at the Register Office the fee is £50. If the documents have to be forwarded to the General Register Office to be considered the fee is £75.
Please note that failure to bring the correct documents to your appointment will result in another appointment having to be made and the payment of another fee.
If you have concerns that you are unable to provide the essential documents required for the appointment please contact us to discuss.
Your appointment
At the appointment you will be seen separately from your partner and will be asked to give information about yourself and them.
You will be asked to provide the essential documents as outlined above.
A notice of marriage or civil partnership must be given for a specific venue. Once given this cannot be changed. If you decide to change the venue of your ceremony you will have to pay for and attend to give notice again.
At the end of the appointment if you are getting married in the Wakefield district you will be issued with a guide to your ceremony. If your ceremony is in another local authority area they will be notified that you have attended to give notice on the national system 'Registration Online'.
The notice will be publicly displayed at Wakefield Register Office for 28 days.
Giving notice for getting married/forming a civil partnership in a religious building
If you are planning to be married in the Church of England you will need to speak to the person in charge at the church.
If you are planning to marry or form a civil partnership in any other church or religious building you will need to give notice as outlined above depending on your nationality.
If the religious building is located in the Wakefield district, at the end of the statutory waiting period the Schedule would normally be sent by first class signed for post, which carries a cost of £2.50 which the Registrar will need to take at your appointment. You also have the option to arrange an appointment to collect the schedule after the date they are due down. Alternatively, you can give written permission for a person from the religious building to collect these on your behalf, by completing the collection slip. They will need to make an appointment and provide identification to collect these.
If the religious building is located outside the Wakefield district the Schedule will be issued by the Register Office in the District the ceremony is taking place and you will need to contact them to discuss how to receive your schedule and purchase copies of your marriage/civil partnership certificate.
You will not be issued a certificate on the day of your ceremony. The Schedule (which you will have signed) will be returned to the Register office by the person who officiated your ceremony within 21 days to be inputted onto our system. We aim to input all schedules within 7 days from receipt after which we will be able to process any application for a marriage certificate. To apply for a certificate you will be invited to visit our website and make an application online.