Getting married in Belgium
Getting married in Belgium when one of you is not Belgian
Whether you can marry here depends on one rule in the Belgian Code of Private International Law : at least one of you is Belgian, lives in Belgium, or has had their habitual residence here for more than three months. After that the steps are the same as for any couple, with more paperwork: foreign documents, a sworn translation, sometimes an interpreter. This guide follows the law and the government pages, and says where your town decides itself.
Elian Van Cutsem, founder of Ringske
Who can marry in Belgium?
Article 44 of the Code of Private International Law says it in one sentence: a marriage can be celebrated in Belgium if, at the time of the wedding, one of the future spouses is Belgian, has their domicile in Belgium, or has had their habitual residence in Belgium for more than three months. One of you is enough. Your partner may be of any nationality and live anywhere.
Habitual residence is a matter of fact: where you really live. The Code says so in article 4. It is not the same as being registered with the town, although the registration is usually how you prove it.
If neither of you is Belgian and you both live abroad, you cannot marry here legally. Then you marry in the country where one of you lives, and you can still celebrate in Belgium afterwards: a party, a symbolic or religious ceremony. The legal marriage is the one at the town hall at home.
Whose law sets the conditions?
Whether each of you may marry at all (age, an earlier marriage, family ties) is decided by the law of the country whose nationality you have, article 46 of the Code of Private International Law says. A Belgian follows Belgian law, an Italian Italian law, each for themselves.
There is one exception that matters to many couples. If the law of one partner's country forbids two people of the same sex to marry, that ban is set aside when the other is a national of, or lives in, a country that allows it. Belgium has allowed same-sex marriage since 2003.
The registrar checks these conditions when you file the declaration. That is why the town asks for proof that you are not married, and for your nationality.
The declaration: where and when
You file the marriage declaration at the civil registry of the town where one of you lives, that is, where you are registered in the population, foreigners or waiting register. That is also where you get married.
By law at the earliest six months and at the latest fourteen days before the wedding. Many towns ask for it earlier because foreign documents take time to check: Ghent asks for at least six weeks. With documents from abroad, start sooner rather than later. A certificate that needs an apostille and a translation can take weeks to arrive.
Documents from abroad
If you are registered in Belgium and were born here, the town usually only asks for your identity card or passport. Whoever is not registered here, or was born abroad, also brings proof of nationality, of being unmarried and of their main residence, and often a birth certificate. Ask your town for its exact list before you order anything abroad.
Those foreign documents must be legalised or carry an apostille, and where needed be translated by a translator sworn in at a Belgian court, the Flemish government writes. Ask your town whether a translation made in your own country is accepted, or whether it has to be done in Belgium.
Documents from another EU country are simpler. Since 2019 the EU regulation on public documents means that a birth certificate or a proof of marital status from another member state needs no apostille in Belgium. Ask the issuing country for the multilingual standard form with it: with that form attached, a translation can only be asked for in exceptional cases.
The language of the ceremony
In Flanders the registrar conducts the civil ceremony in Dutch. Leuven writes it plainly: if one of you does not speak Dutch, you bring an official interpreter, and you pay them yourselves.
Ask your own town in time what it expects, and whether the interpreter needs to be at the declaration too, or only at the ceremony. Budget it under "civil wedding", see what a wedding costs.
First the town hall, then the rest
The Belgian Constitution says it in article 21: the civil marriage must always come before the religious blessing. A church, mosque, synagogue or temple wedding without the town hall first has no legal force in Belgium, and the minister may not perform it before it.
A symbolic ceremony, at a venue or in a garden, is not a marriage in the eyes of the law either. You can make it as long and personal as you like and choose its timing yourselves. It does not replace the civil marriage. The legal order described above concerns a religious blessing.
After the wedding: the certificate abroad
After the ceremony the town draws up the marriage certificate. Need it in another country, for your embassy, a new passport or the register in the country of your partner? Then it usually needs a legalisation or an apostille first, the Flemish government explains, and sometimes a translation.
Within the EU the same regulation applies the other way round: the Belgian certificate needs no apostille in another member state, and you can ask your town for the multilingual standard form with it. Many countries also want you to register the marriage yourselves. Ask your embassy or consulate what they need, before or right after the wedding.