The Ministry of Justice provides guidance on how to register a marriage with a foreigner in Ukraine.
According to Article 21 of the Family Code of Ukraine (hereinafter – the Code), marriage is a family union between a man and a woman, registered with the civil registration authority. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for Ukrainians to wish to marry and start a family with a foreign national.
In reality, registering a marriage with a citizen of another country in Ukraine is not so difficult. One important condition for marriage is that the foreigner must be legally present in Ukraine at the time of registration.
Article 26 of the Constitution of Ukraine establishes that foreigners and stateless persons who are legally in Ukraine enjoy the same rights and freedoms, as well as bear the same responsibilities, as Ukrainian citizens, with exceptions established by the Constitution, laws, or international treaties of Ukraine.
The regulatory framework for the procedure of submitting a marriage registration application and the state registration of marriage is defined by the Law of Ukraine "On State Registration of Civil Status Acts" (hereinafter – the Law), the Code, and the Rules of State Registration of Civil Status Acts in Ukraine, approved by the order of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine dated October 18, 2000, No. 52/5, registered with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine on October 18, 2000, under No. 719/4940 (hereinafter – the Rules).
Thus, the application for marriage registration should be submitted by the woman and man to any civil registration authority of their choice (Part One of Article 28 of the Code).
It should be noted that grounds for marriage invalidity include violations of the requirements established by Articles 22, 24–26 of the Code.
At the same time, Article 39 of the Code specifies that a marriage is invalid if it is registered with a person who is simultaneously in another registered marriage; a marriage between individuals who are direct line relatives, or between a brother and sister; or with a person who is declared incapacitated.
Additionally, it is noted that state registration of civil status acts for applications from foreigners and stateless persons is conducted according to Ukrainian legislation. Civil registration authorities notify the competent authorities of foreign states with which Ukraine has agreements on legal assistance and legal relations in civil and family matters about the state registration of civil status acts of citizens of those states if the agreements' rules provide for such information (Clause 8, Section I of the Rules).
State registration of marriage is certified by a marriage certificate, the format of which is approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (Part Two of Article 27 of the Code).
State registration of marriage is conducted in the presence of both the bride and groom, who must present their Ukrainian passports or the foreigner’s passport documents or a document proving the identity of a stateless person. Marriage registration through a representative is not allowed (Part 9 of Article 14 of the Law).
If either the bride or groom is a foreigner or stateless person, they must present documents confirming their legal stay in Ukraine, and if they hold citizenship from multiple countries, they must also present the relevant passport documents (Clause 8, Chapter 2, Section III of the Rules).
Clause 9, Chapter 2, Section III of the Rules specifies that if either the bride or groom has previously been married, details about the document confirming the termination of the previous marriage (such as a divorce certificate, court decision on divorce, or death certificate of the previous spouse) must be included in the marriage registration application.
If the document confirming the termination of the previous marriage is issued by a foreign state’s competent authority, it must be presented by the relevant applicant.
Documents in foreign languages must be submitted for state registration of civil status acts along with their translations into Ukrainian, certified in accordance with the established procedure, which are kept in the files of the civil registration authority that accepted the application (Clause 7, Chapter 1, Section II of the Rules).
Note! Article 30 of the Code stipulates that the bride and groom are obliged to inform each other about their health status. The procedure for medical examination of the bride and groom is established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The results of the medical examination are confidential and are communicated only to the bride and groom.
Concealing health information by one of the parties, which may result in or has resulted in harm to the physical or mental health of the other party or their descendants, can be grounds for declaring the marriage invalid.
If there is information about obstacles to marriage registration, the head of the civil registration authority may postpone the registration of the marriage, but for no more than three months. This decision can be appealed to the court.
If the bride and groom cannot appear for the state registration of the marriage on the scheduled day for a valid reason, the registration date can be postponed to another day upon their written request in any form, which can be submitted by one of the parties or sent by mail. In this case, the postponement of the state registration of the marriage cannot exceed one year from the date of the submission of the respective request. If the bride and groom fail to appear for the marriage registration and do not notify the reason for their absence within three months from the date of the request, the application becomes invalid (Clause 18, Chapter 2, Section III of the Rules).
At the same time, Clause 19, Chapter 2, Section III of the Rules specifies that state registration of marriage is conducted at the premises of the civil registration authority.
Upon request, the state registration of marriage may be conducted at the bride and groom's place of residence, at a stationary medical facility, or another location if they cannot arrive at the civil registration authority for a valid reason, provided that a document confirming this valid reason is attached to the marriage registration application.
A state duty is charged for marriage registration in the amount of 0.05 of the non-taxable minimum income of citizens (subparagraph “a” of Clause 5, Article 3 of the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated January 21, 1993, No. 7-83 “On State Duty”).
Departments may provide paid services, the list of which is approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The procedure for providing paid services is approved by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine (Part Three of Article 20 of the Law).
