If you are visiting Australia and wish to marry in this truly beautiful country, you are very welcome to do so.

You don't need to be a resident of Australia to marry here, and your marriage will be legally recognised in your country (please check with your own government agency to be certain).

The same conditions for marriage apply to visitors as for Australian residents; that is, you must be marriagable (a man and woman who are both unmarried and over 18).

You must lodge your Notice of Intended Marriage with me one month before the date of your wedding. You can do this by fax or mail from overseas, as long as you both sign this Notice in the presence of an authorised person. You can download this Notice from the Attorney-General's website - this page also lists those persons in whose presence the Notice of Intended Marriage can be signed outside Australia. If you do sign the Notice outside Australia, you must bring the original Notice for me to see before the ceremony. If only one of you can sign at the time of lodging the Notice, that's fine - the other person can add his/her signature in my presence before the ceremony.

Before the ceremony begins, you must also show me the following:
  your birth certificate OR a statutory declaration made by you or your parent, stating that you can't obtain a birth certificate or official extract (you will need to state why in your statutory declaration), and state when and where you were born, as accurately as you or your parent making the declaration can know, OR a passport issued by a government of an overseas country, showing the date and place of your birth. (If your birth certificate, statutory declaration or passport is not in English, you must arrange to have it translated by a translator who is competent to make the translation and who will sign a declaration that “the translation is a translation of the official record of which it purports to be a translation and that he is competent to make a translation of that official record.” –Regulation 53 of the Marriage Regulations 1963.)

  if either the bride or groom was previously married, you must show me the court evidence of the decree, or nullity order, or death certificate of previous spouse. (Again, if these are in a language other than English, you must arrange to have them translated as above.)

  if either the bride or groom to the marriage is a minor, you must show me an effective court order issued by a Judge or Magistrate, and either a consent form signed by your parent(s)/guardian(s) or a dispensation of consent issued by a Judge or Magistrate. (If the consent is in a language other than English, you must arrange to have it translated as above.)

  if you wish to be married sooner than one calendar month away and haven't yet lodged the Notice of Intended Marriage, you must give me an authority to solemnise the marriage, given by a prescribed authority.

All documentation must be original, not photocopies.

IMPORTANT: In order to ensure your marriage is recognised in your country, you will need to obtain an Official Certificate of Marriage from the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (or from the Registry appropriate to the state in which you were married), stamped by the Registry. As at 1st July 2009, the price for a standard certificate is $26.60. Express postage (within Australia) for a standard certificate is $4.60. This can be ordered online, but bear in mind that proof of identity documents must be supplied.

Once it is copied, stamped by the Registry and supplied to you, you must have this Official Certificate of Marriage stamped with either an Apostille or an Authentication stamp. You can find out which by checking with your government or with the embassy and/or consulate of that country in Australia.

If your country is included in this list of countries who signed the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, you will need an Apostille stamp (AUD $60 per document as at 29th February 2008). For other countries (including Vietnam, most of the Middle East, and China - except for Hong Kong and Macau), you will need an Authentication (AUD $20 per document as at 29th February 2008). Apostille and Authentication stamping is performed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade - you can go in person or send your document by mail.

If you are planning on staying in Australia, or if you are marrying on a prospective marriage visa with a view to becoming a permanent resident of Australia, you MUST be in a “genuine and continuing marital relationship with, either an Australian citizen or a permanent resident of Australia” (as per Section 237 of the Migration Act 1958). You should carefully read through all the information provided by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to find out how these visas work, what they cost, what your obligations are in applying for such a visa or in sponsoring someone for such a visa, and how to apply for this type of visa.

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