Marrying a foreigner in the territory of Estonia

Document stating that there is no obstacles preventing the marriage

Our office is often contacted by couples in which one of the parties is a non-resident of Estonia (most often a permanent resident of the Russian Federation or Ukraine), or both are foreigners who wish, for any reason, to register their relationship in Estonia, but the local registry office refused to accept their application for registration of marriage, or obliged to provide a document stating that there is no obstacles preventing the marriage, as soon as possible.

The reason for the refusals by the local registry offices is that in many states there is no single register of acts of civil status of the population, so it is not possible to obtain a document on the absence of obstacles to marriage complying with the international requirements. Due to this fact, the competent authorities of the Republic of Estonia have no possibility to establish unambiguously the marital status of the applicant on the basis, for example, only on one extract from the registry office issued at the place of permanent or temporary registration of the applicant in a home country – this document does not reflect the data on the marital status of the applicant, possibly available in other registry offices and other involved institutions of the country of residence of the latter. As an example, it is possible to cite a situation when the registry offices of St. Petersburg will not have any data on the marital status of a citizen who has contracted marriage in Moscow. In the Russian Federation, Ukraine and other states, this problem is solved simply – during the registration of marriage the appropriate mark is made in the internal passport of a citizen, but, unfortunately, this document is intended only for internal use in the issuing country, so that foreign internal passports and the information contained therein have no legal force in Estonia.

Court permission to enter into and register marriage in Estonia

The problem faced by foreigners wishing to legalize their relationship by registering a marriage in Estonia is solvable. In accordance with Part 5 of Article 39 of the Law on civil status records management of the Republic of Estonia, the court may, by its decision, grant a permission to marry without any certificates and certificates to a foreigner whose place of residence is outside the Republic of Estonia or who has resided in the territory of the Republic of Estonia for less than 6 months immediately before filing an application to the registry office for the registration of marriage and who is not able to provide a valid document confirming the right to marry under the current legislation of the Republic of Estonia.

To obtain the necessary permission for registration of the marriage, a non-resident must apply to the district court in the city where the wedding ceremony is planned to conduct in the future. The application must be made in accordance with the Law on civil judicial proceedings of the Republic of Estonia, as well as comply with all other rules and criteria established for documents submitted to the court.

Our lawyers will prepare for you the necessary application to the court for the obtaining of permission to marry

The lawyers of Kalashnikov Law Office are glad to offer you their assistance and support in obtaining court permission to marry. We will prepare an application for you within one working day.

Preparation of the application usually takes 1-2 working days. In order to prepare and submit an application, it is mandatory to have a foreign passport and a visa if it is required to enter the territory of Estonia. It is desirable to have a certificate of absence of the fact of state registration of marriage (Russian Federation), a notarized statement on the absence of obstacles to marry (Ukraine), or a certificate of marriage dissolution, and this divorce must be registered not earlier than 3 months ago.

The cost of preparing the application to obtain judicial permission for marriage in the territory of Estonia is EUR 150.

If necessary, for an additional fee, the lawyers of our office will prepare a translation of all additional materials and annexes to the application into Estonian and submit the application to the court without the personal presence of the applicant. When submitting materials to the court, a state fee of EUR 10 is applied. The period for consideration of this application by the court varies from several days to one month.

Contact the lawyers of Kalashnikov Law Office

Please schedule a counseling session with a lawyer in advance by telephone +372 6775544, or contact us using the following communication channels:

E-mail:klienditugi@kalashnikov.ee
Skype: kalashnikov.ee
Mobile telephone / Viber / WhatsApp / Telegram: +372 82088888

Our lawyers will be happy to answer all your questions.