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How to get married in Ukraine
This HOW-TO is intended as advice (without any liability) for a British citizen who wishes to marry in Ukraine
to a Ukrainian national.
Firstly, the documents you need:
The most difficult is a 'Document of Non-Impediment' which states that you
are free to marry. You need this because our marital status is not given
in our passports. If you are previously divorced, you will also need a legalised and translated Divorce Certificate (see below for the procedure for that).
A DoN-I is obtainable in two ways:
Either from the consulate in Kiev (you must be resident in Ukraine for at
least three weeks before swearing the oath in front of the vice-consul,
and then you receive the document 21 days later, after your notice of
marriage have been posted on the consulate and embassy notice boards for
the intervening time). This document is issued by a legal entity in
Ukraine and therefore should not need to be legalised (but that won't stop the
director of ZAGS, the Ukrainian registry office, insisting on it, guess I
didn't bribe the cow enough!). Anyway, as of 2002 the British Embassy recommend that you get it legalised.
So once you have the document, it should be legalised at the Consular
Division of the Ukrainian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (1, Mykhaylivska Sq, Kiev, Tel: 293 2906.
Or, you can get a DoN-I from your local Registry Office in UK. Some senior
registrars insist on seeing your future partners divorce certificate (if
applicable), some don't. There doesn't seem to be a standard procedure
even in this country. Then the document has to be legalised for use in
Ukraine.
Here's how to legalise a document at the FCO for use in Ukraine (the following applies both to the Document of Non-Impediment and a Divorce Certificate).
Send to:
The Legalisation Office,
with a cheque or postal order (better) for £12 per document, and a
covering letter saying what country the document should be legalised for.
BUT it takes 12-14 days and rising!
Much better to go there in person if time is a factor, they will do it
while you wait. They are open until midday Monday to Friday. For information,
phone the FCO and ask for the "Marriages Abroad section".
The Ukrainian consulate then want it translated, along with a notarised
translation of your passport.
Their favoured translator is:
Then, the Ukrainian consulate will legalise your DoN-I for a fee of about
£20, and a delay of a couple of days, and you've got through one of
the major hoops.
Generally, foreigners will only be able to get married at the central ZAGS
in any major city in Ukraine. The documents you need are a notarised
translation of your passport (easy, cheap and quick to get in Ukraine),
legalised and translated Divorce Certificate (if applicable), and of course your DoN-I. Your bride
will need her passort and maybe her divorce certificate (if applicable).
You should normally book your wedding 30 days in advance, but who
has the time for that? Airline tickets showing my imminent departure were
deemed sufficient grounds for waiving the waiting period. We booked the
day before. The size of the bribe required to make this happen will depend
on how unpleasent the director of your particular ZAGS will be.
That's it, hand your passports over the day before and then after a short
ceremony you'll be given your passports back with a marriage stamp in them
and two copies of your wedding certificate. Your bride will then be told
that everything needs to be legalised for use in the UK, and someone knows
a department that will do it for a reasonable fee. Just so you know,
nothing needs to be legalised. If you are legally married in Ukraine, you
are just as legally married in the UK!
Ok that's it for this how-to. As regards the UK
visa process, the requirements are similar for fiancees and for spouses.
Anyway, hope that helps a bit.
One more thing, for Ukrainian citizens it is important that they register
with the London consulate that they are resident in UK once they have the
one year 'leave to remain' and before they go back for a visit, or else
they may have problems leaving Ukraine next time. That procedure is quite
easy and recent reports are they they don't charge for this.
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