6 Steps to Marry a German Citizen as a Foreigner - Quick and Easy

You moved to Germany as a foreigner to achieve your goals and dreams, never thinking, that you might actually find someone and fall in love. Let alone falling in love to the point of marrying them. But well, life happens. Both of you are now, yearning to confess your lifelong commitment to each other and share this happiness with your friends and family. But..!!! getting married to your partner of dreams in Germany might be more challenging than you thought it ever could be. I am here to help you, this is,

step-by-step guide to Getting Married to a German in Denmark by Yourself and Without the Help of any Consultants or Event Planers in Three Weeks.

Hi, I am Farah, and I found myself in a similar situation. Being a Pakistani living in Germany for 5 years and not having a German nationality, the road to be married to a German citizen seemed to be a long and hard. I will not direct you to a consultant, nor am I looking to sell you a product or a service. This is the exact process I went through by myself. Plan yourselves 20 Minutes and let’s get cracking!

But First, a Little Bit of a Background...

When I moved to Berlin in September 2021 to start a new Job, little did I know that I would find my future husband at my workplace! Real Original, I know! Anyway, sparks flew and we soon realised that we share a lot of similar values and we are crazy about each other as humans and even more so as partners for life. We were spending practically every day together after being exclusive and had already started to consider the possibility of being married within 8 months of being together. Eight months might sound fast but; “When you know, you know!” Right?

Being a foreigner, I had to go through the exhaustive bureaucracy and produce an array of documents to prove that I am marrying him for the right reasons. But before even getting the opportunity to make our case, we had to be lucky enough to get an appointment to register for a German Marriage certificate. You can only register for this certificate in the bureau of the neighbourhood you reside. Ours was Mitte which is one of the busiest in Berlin and that meant, there were no appointments to even start the process for months. We realised quick enough that we do not want German Bureaucracy to dictate when and how could we commit our love to each other.

We soon started to explore different avenues and in came, Denmark! Now getting married in Denmark is not news. Every expat has known a friend who flew to Denmark to get hitched. One search on Google can find you at least 100 planers and consultants that can arrange for you to get married in Denmark starting of-course 500€.

But there was a catch! Being the smart spender that I am, I wanted to explore getting married in Denmark but was apprehended by the idea of spending upwards of 700 euros to get married. I thought, what the marriage consultants in Denmark can do, SO CAN I! So, I got to Google and the rest was history.

Step 1: Find the Family Agency Website of Denmark:

Go to the Website here and skim through the page. Pay close attention to all the prerequisites. You are going to do it once, make sure you do it legally. Just a few important things that you might need for the process.

Proof that you are 18 years or older (an adult)
Your German residence permit/visa
Your Passport that is valid for 3 months or more beyond your stay.
Proof that you are registered in Germany, a simple registration document (Meldebestätigung) is enough
Proof that you were never married before
That you are not related by blood to your partner

Step 2: Fill out the Form

Your next step is to fill out the form. I did it using the SMS service but you can also sign up to their official WEBID page.
Here you would be required to choose the city where you want to get married. Decide this option after careful consideration. Some big cities like Copenhagen might have longer waiting times to get an appointment.
Bonus Tip: Consider cities other than Copenhagen. We decided to go for Billund City and chose Billund Kommun for our ceremony. The entire ceremony was extremely wonderful, the people were extremely gracious. They had celebratory champagnes for us, gave us a gift, and had candles during the ceremony which I do not believe the big cities would offer. Afterward, they were generous enough to make a reservations for us at the local restaurant for us to celebrate our post-wedding lunch.

We were also not required to come a day earlier to register ourselves at the city marriage bureau which might be the case with some big cities. I know that my friends had to be in Copenhagen three days in advance for pre-marriage document checks. Whereas, in Billund we went for the document check on the day of our wedding.

Despite that, we decided to arrive one day early with our family to enjoy a lovely day and a night stay at Middelfahrt in Comwell Hotels. Middelfahrt is about 50 min by car from Billund Kommun.

Here you can take a look at other nice places to stay in Billund

Here you will find all the amazing locations in Copenhagen.

Since Denmark is bit on the expensive side, one night for 100€ is not a bad deal at all. For us, it was about 200€ for one night.

Step 3: Do Final Reviews and Send that Application

Add in all required information, attach the documents and pictures, and take a last good look at everything.

Pay the required amount and send the application. I paid DKK 1880 or 240 Euros as of July 2023. Important! If you wish to change your name after marriage and you are not a resident of Denmark, then unfortunately, you might only be able to so when you return to Germany. Upon your arrival, you have to go through the name-changing process according to the German Bureaucracy. Yay! Not.

Congratulations! You have saved at least 400 € on the whole process. Yes, doing this is all you need to send in your application to get married.

Step 4: After the Reply from Family Agency Law Office and Contact the Danish Marriage Bureau

After a maximum of two weeks, you should hear from the family agency law regarding their decision.

If their decision is positive, you can contact the marriage bureau of the city that you chose at the time of application and write them an Email informing the family agency’s decision and asking them to give you a date. At this point, you can already tell them a tentative date that you have in mind and ask them if they would be kind enough to consider your proposed date.

This might be also a good point to let them know if you would bring the witnesses with you or if you want the Kommun to arrange witnesses for you. Billund Marriage Bureau did it for us at no extra cost.

Step 5: The Ceremony

After going through the process and making it to the Bureau on your wedding day, you are almost ready to say I Do! The Ceremony would be a maximum of 10 minutes long, at this time they would also ask whether you would like to exchange rings or gifts. And provide you with the Marriage certificate that would be in three to four languages. And just like that you are TIED IN THE HOLY MATRIMONY!!! CONGRATULATIONS YOU DID IT! TAKE A PAUSE TO CELEBRATE YOURSELVES AND YOUR LOVE

Step 6: Register your Danish Marriage in Germany

After your return from what I hope is a little honeymoon weekend, you are now ready to be registered as a married couple in Germany. All you need to do is call the citizen’s office (Bürgeramt) and inform them about your marriage and that you wish to register yourself. You don’t necessarily have to register yourself at the citizen’s office of your neighborhood, You can book an appointment anywhere to register your marriage. This should be not an exhaustive process. For us, the registration took us one week and we did not even have to wait to get into the office. The officewhere you register youir marriage would automatically inform the Finance Office (Finanzamt) and your tax class will automatically change.