When planning a wedding in Denmark, or just abroad in general, there are a few important rules you need to be aware of before you travel and submit your application. One of them is the requirement for legal stay.
This means that both of you must be allowed to enter Denmark and stay here legally at the time of your wedding ceremony. The rules can depend on your nationality, visa situation, residence permit, or right to visa-free entry.
It is worth mentioning that you must also have an approved marriage application, also known as a certificate of marital status, from the Danish Agency of Family Law.
In this post, we go through what legal stay can be based on, which documents you may need to provide, and what you should check before moving forward with your marriage application.
Before your wedding can take place, both of you must be able to legally enter Denmark and stay there at the time of the ceremony. This is one of the basic requirements for foreign couples, and it is something you should always check before planning your trip.
The rules depend on where you are from and what kind of residence or travel permission you have. For some couples, this part is very simple. For others, especially if one or both of you are from outside the EU/EEA, there may be more details to look into before submitting the marriage application.
It’s is never that easy to planning a wedding , especially abroad. But Denmark is known for keeping the process relatively simple. In many cases, couples do not need to provide as many documents or hard-to-get documents as they would in other countries.
There are also no long residency requirements for most foreign couples. That makes Denmark especially attractive for couples who do not live in Denmark but want to travel there for their wedding. Instead of spending a long time in the country before the ceremony, coouples can plan a short stay around their wedding date.
When applying for marriage, you may need to document that you are staying legally in the country. The exact documents depend on your situation, but they can include a passport, visa, tourist visa, residence permit, EU residence document, or a residence permit from another Schengen country.
In some cases, you may also need to show when you entered Denmark. This can, for example, be shown with an entry stamp in your passport. This is especially relevant if you travel shortly before the wedding and need to prove that your stay is within the allowed period.
See our comprehensive list of all the required documents you will or may need.
If you have Danish citizenship, you usually do not need to send documentation for legal stay. The same may apply if you are a citizen of another Nordic country and live in Denmark.
For most international couples, however, it is still important to check the situation for both partners separately. One partner may already have the right to stay, while the other may need to show a visa, residence permit, or other travel documentation.
If you are a citizen of a country outside the EU/EEA, you must have a valid passport or another accepted travel document when entering Denmark. In general, your passport must be valid for at least three months after the date you plan to leave the country.
Your passport must also contain at least two empty pages and must have been issued within the last 10 years. If your passport was issued more than 10 years ago, it may not be accepted as valid travel documentation, even if the expiry date has not yet passed.
If you have already received an approval letter from Danish Agency of Family Law (Familieretshuset) but cannot find an available wedding date at a Danish town hall, we can help.
Wedding Planner Denmark assists couples in finding an available ceremony date and reserving a time slot at a town hall in Denmark.
Feel free to contact us for more information.
