Apply for subsequent certification of a marriage concluded abroad

If you apply in person on site, the following steps are required:

• At least one of the spouses who has German citizenship appears in person at the registry office and brings all the necessary documents with them.
• The registrar checks whether certification by a German registry office is possible.
• If all the requirements are met, entry can be made in the marriage register.
• If necessary, the registry office will issue a marriage certificate after registration has been completed.

If you live in Germany, the registry office of the place where you live or have your habitual residence is responsible.
If you live abroad, the Registry Office I in Berlin is responsible.

Subsequent certification is possible in the following cases:

• You married abroad and one of you has German citizenship or is stateless, a homeless foreign person or a foreign refugee.
• You married within Germany and neither of you had German citizenship at the time of your marriage. The marriage was performed by an authorized person of a government of the state to which one of you belongs.
• The time at which the application is submitted is decisive for the possession of German citizenship.
• The marriage must be legally valid and must not contradict German law.
• Eligible to apply are:
  • The spouses
  • If both spouses are deceased, their parents and children

• Foreign marriage or marriage certificate, if necessary with certification by the responsible foreign authority (apostille) or legalization by the German diplomatic mission
• Valid ID card, passport or travel document
• Certified copies of the birth registers from the registry offices of the places of birth
  • When the spouses give birth in Germany
• Birth certificates with certification by the responsible foreign authority (apostille) or legalization by the German diplomatic mission abroad
  • If the spouses gave birth abroad
• Translations of all documents in foreign languages by sworn translators in the country
• If applicable, naturalization certificate or citizenship certificate
• Proof of the establishment and dissolution of all civil partnerships
  • Only required if a spouse has already established a registered civil partnership
• Certified copy from the marriage register of the last previous marriage with a note of dissolution
  • Only required if one spouse has been married before. Alternatively or in the event of a previous marriage abroad: Evidence of the conclusion and dissolution of all previous marriages. For example, marriage certificates, death certificates, all divorce decrees - complete and with a note from the court stating since when the judgment has been legally binding ("legal notice").
• If necessary, recognition of the foreign divorce by the President of the Higher Regional Court
  • Only required if one spouse has been married before.
• More documents
  • In individual cases, additional documents may be required

• § 34 Civil Status Act (PStG)
• § 9 Personal Status Act (PStG)
• § 10 Personal Status Act (PStG)
• § 13 Introductory Act to the Civil Code (EGBGB)
• § 438 Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO)

• contradiction
• Application for a court decision

If the marriage was concluded abroad, you can apply to the registry office in your home town to have the marriage subsequently certified in the German marriage register.