It may be either the regional state administration or your local authority who examines whether the marriage requirements have been fulfilled.

Your local authority will process your case if you and your partner:

• are Danish or Nordic citizen(s)
• have permanent residence permits in Denmark
• are entitled to permanent residence in Denmark according to the EU rules.

When you want to marry, you need to apply for it by filling out a notice of marriage from the local authority of the district in which both of you or one of you live.

You must apply digitally. If you cannot apply online yourselves, your local authority’s citizen service or the library can help you.

The regional state administration can help you if you, your partner or both of you are foreign citizens.

When you want to marry, both of you must fill out this notice of marriage. Also, you must submit/present the documents mentioned in this notice of marriage.

Please note that both of you must have reached 18 years of age to marry in Denmark. Exemption from this rule will not be granted.

If both of you have a Danish civil registration number and can, thus, get a MitID login, it is mandatory that you use the digital solution which you will find at borger.dk or which your local authority provides at your disposal on its homepage.

If merely one of you do not have the MitID login, you cannot submit the notice of marriage digitally, but will have to fill out the information in the form and subsequently, print and send/submit it to your local authority. Remember to sign the form and to specify the date.

The form is to be sent/submitted to the local authority of the district where you live. If you live in two different districts, you are free to choose which of the two is to process your case.

Your local authority will need the information in the form and any documents enclosed to examine whether you fulfil the marriage requirements. Insufficient or wrong information may lead to a postponement of your marriage case and to you not getting married at the time planned. If changes to the information you have given to your local authority occur before your marriage, you must contact your local authority immediately.

If the marriage is not to be conducted by your own local authority, but by another local authority, by the Danish National Evangelical Lutheran Church or by a recognised or approved religious organisation, your local authority will issue a certificate of marital status to you stating that you fulfil the marriage requirements. Submit the certificate of marital status to the authority which is to conduct the marriage. The certificate of marital status must be issued less than four months prior to the marriage.

• If you are registered in the Danish Civil Register as living in Denmark, you are not required to prove your Danish citizenship or citizenship of one of the other Nordic countries (Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) because this information may be found in the Danish Civil Register.
• If you are not registered in the Danish Civil Register as living in Denmark, you are required to prove your Danish citizenship or citizenship of one of the other Nordic countries (Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) by presenting a copy of your passport.
• If you have a permanent residence permit in Denmark, you must prove it by presenting a copy of your residence permit.
• If you have a permanent residence permit in Denmark according to the EU rules, you are required to prove it by presenting a copy of (‘proof of entitlement to permanent residence’ or ‘residence card’).

Names which differ or do not appear from the Danish Civil Register or your birth or name certificates, must be proved in other ways (e.g. marriage certificate, civil partnership certificate or change of name certificate.)

If you live abroad (or in the Faroe Islands) and are not registered in the Danish Civil Register, name and date of birth must be proved, e.g. by presenting your passport.

If one or both of you want to change your name on your wedding day, it is mandatory that you fill out the application by means of the digital ’Navneændring på bryllupsdagen’ (Name change on your wedding day) self-service solution which you will find at borger.dk. Once you have both signed the application by means of your MitID login, it is automatically sent to the civil registrar in your parish of residence who will be handling your application. If you were born in South Jutland, the application will be processed by the local authority where you were born. In exceptional cases where the application cannot be sent by means of the digital self-service solution, the special ‘Navneændring på bryllupsdagen’ (Name change on your wedding day) form must be used.

Any application regarding name change on your wedding day must, in general, have reached your parish of residence/ the civil register not later than 15 work days prior to the date of marriage. It is important that you inform the authority whether you have applied for a name change in the notice of marriage.

People who are not domiciled in Denmark (i.e. do not have a permanent connection to Denmark), cannot have their name changed in Denmark in connection with their marriage. Danish citizens who are domiciled in a country which do not conduct name changes for foreign citizens may, however, have their name changed on their wedding day.

It is a requirement to be able to marry that any former marriage or civil partnership has been dissolved by divorce, death or annulment.

Separation does not entitle the parties to remarry.

Proof of divorce in Denmark
Danish divorces – by decree or grant – are registered in the Danish Civil Register. Normally, it is, therefore, not necessary to present the grant for divorce/the divorce decree.

Grants for divorce are registered in the Danish Civil Register when the grant is issued. Divorce decrees, on the other hand, are usually not registered in the Danish Civil Register until after eight weeks. Your local authority can advise you on proof of your divorce has it not yet been registered in the Danish Civil Register. This also applies if your civil partnership has ended by divorce in Denmark.

People whose marriage has ended by death in Denmark
It is not necessary to present proof of deaths registered in the Danish Civil Register.

Where the former marriage has ended by death and the estate of the deceased is administered in Denmark, the surviving spouse may not remarry before the community property has been divided or is being administered by an administrator or an executor or by the court.

However, this does not apply in the following situations:

• There was no community property in the former marriage. (This may be proved by a registered marriage agreement according to which all property in the former marriage was fully separate property.)
• The spouses were separated at the time of death. (This may be proved by a decree of judicial separation/ grant for legal separation or by looking it up in the Danish Civil Register if registered there.)
• All beneficiaries of the deceased give their consent to the surviving spouse remarrying. (This is, however, not possible if the person getting married has retained undivided possession of the estate, cf. below.)

If the estate has been wound up by administration out of court, your local authority can advise you on which proof to submit.

In very special cases, the local authority can grant exemption from administration so that the surviving spouse may remarry without the division of the community property having been decided upon.

This also applies if your civil partnership has ended by death in Denmark.

Undivided possession of an estate (when the former spouse is dead)
If one – or both – of you have retained undivided possession of an estate, such estate must be administered before you remarry. No exemption may be granted, not even if the children of the deceased spouse want to give their consent to the marriage without prior administration. Read more in the ‘Vejledning til behandling af ægteskabssager’ (Practice note to the handling of matrimonial proceedings) found on the Danish Social Appeals Board’s homepage, ast.dk [in Danish only]. This also applies if your civil partnership has ended by death in Denmark.

Foreign divorces and death certificates
If the former marriage has ended by a foreign divorce, etc., the local authority will consider whether proof has been presented that the marriage has been dissolved.

If the former marriage has been dissolved by death abroad, the local authority will consider whether documentation has been presented for the death. When the former marriage has been dissolved by death and the administration of the estate of the deceased does not take place in Denmark, the surviving spouse may remarry even if the estate of the deceased has not been wound up.

You may find the guidance notes on the requirements for the acknowledgement of foreign divorces and death certificates at your local authority or at ast.dk

Familiarize yourself well in advance with the requirements for acknowledgement of foreign divorces and death certificates.

This also applies if a civil partnership has ended by divorce or death abroad.

You can get further information regarding marriage and the examination of the marriage requirements at your local authority and the regional state administration.

Your local authority will supply the forms mentioned in these guidance notes.

The rules on and requirements for marriage are found in the Danish Act on the Formation and the Dissolution of Marriage, in the Danish Executive Order on the Formation of Marriage and in the ‘Vejledning til behandling af ægteskabssager’ (Practice note on the handling of matrimonial proceedings) found on the Danish Social Appeals Board’s homepage, ast.dk [in Danish only].

You will find information about the mutual financial implications of marriage for the spouses in the ‘Når I skal giftes – husk økonomien (Deling af formue ved separation, skilsmisse og død)’ (Getting married – remember the finances (division of property at legal separation, divorce and death) booklet (available in Danish only) which is an Appendix to this form.

Your local authority may obtain information from other sources (e.g. by means of the Danish Civil Register) with a view to checking the information received. Your local authority will register the information received and pass on the information to other public authorities, private businesses, etc. which are legally entitled to the information or cooperate with your local authority.

Your local authority will delete the information once the data retention requirement expires and any filing requirements have been fulfilled. Once the information has been filed or deleted, your local authority will no longer have access to it.

You are entitled to know which information your local authority has on you, and you may demand that any wrong information is corrected or deleted.

You may contact the data protection officer regarding your rights according to the data protection legislation.

You are entitled to complain to the Danish Data Protection Agency about the processing by the local authority of your personal data.

On Datatilsynet.dk you can read more about the data protection officer’s role.