Rumors suggest that couples getting married in Ireland can enter into a 100-year marriage agreement that prohibits divorce, with low registration fees, whereas those opting for a one-year agreement must pay high fees. Such rumors have made Ireland highly popular among young couples preparing for marriage. Let us take a look at some of the matters involved in marriage registration in Ireland.
If both parties are foreigners and wish to register in Ireland, the situation may be slightly different. Registering in Ireland is quite complicated and different from the process in China. In China, if you have the documents ready, you can go to the Civil Affairs Bureau and get it done on the same day. In Ireland, well, it takes at least three months.
First, you must book an appointment for the time and place to submit your documents on the designated website. You would never guess where the submission location is in Ireland; we started all our marriage registration procedures at a local hospital. That is right, the marriage registry was located inside a hospital, and patients were walking by while we were processing our documents. Regarding my document preparation:
1) Birth Certificate: If you do not have the original, you must have it notarized (you do not need to go in person; family members can take your ID card to the local notary office to handle it). Depending on the region, the processing time may vary; my birth certificate notarization was ready in 3 days. Once you have the notarized birth certificate, you must also obtain a double authentication from the embassy. This can also be done in China without your personal presence, and mine took about a month to complete.
2) Valid Visa: You must prove that you have a legal visa in Ireland. My visa at the time was a work visa.
3) Passport
4) Proof of Address: You can provide electricity bills or internet bills.
5) A registration fee of 200 Euros.
6) Provide relevant information: Where the wedding will be held and who will officiate it. In Ireland, this is very important. If you have a faith and your wedding is held in a church, you need to provide the priest's information. Since I am not a Christian, our wedding was officiated by a local humanist (not just any humanist, it must be one designated by the government), so we provided his information, such as his name and address (the marriage registration staff will verify this).
