Registration of marriage

The process of registering a marriage in Ireland is the same whether you are marrying in a registry office, or having a religious or secular ceremony. Read about the different types of marriage ceremonies in Ireland.

Before you get married, you and the person you wish to marry are required to give notification of your intention to marry to the Registrar at your local Civil Registration Service. You must do this in person, at least 3 months before the date of your marriage. Read more about notification requirements for marriage.

If you are already in a civil partnership and wish to marry, you should contact the Registrar who will guide you through the process. The notification can be given to any Registrar. Find your local Civil Registration Service.

When you give notification of your intention to marry, and if there is no impediment (barrier) to your marriage, the Registrar will issue you with a Marriage Registration Form (MRF) which gives you permission to marry. You need an MRF in order to get married in Ireland. The MRF is also needed to register your marriage, so it is an important document.

You should give the MRF to whomever will be solemnising your marriage before the marriage ceremony. Immediately after the marriage ceremony the MRF should be signed by you and your spouse, the two witnesses and the person solemnising the marriage.

If you get married by civil ceremony, the Registrar who solemnised the marriage will register the marriage with the information on the MRF as soon as possible after the ceremony.

If you get married by religious or secular ceremony, you should give the MRF to a Registrar at a Civil Registration Service within 1 month for the marriage to be registered. It does not have to be returned to the same Registrar who gave it to you.

You cannot get your marriage certificate until your marriage is registered.

Marriages of Irish citizens abroad are normally registered in the country where they occur. The General Register Office (central civil repository for records relating to births, deaths and marriages in Ireland) has no role in the registration of marriages of Irish citizen(s) that take place abroad, or in advising on such marriages. Marriages that take place outside the State are not registered in Ireland.

Your foreign marriage certificate will usually be accepted for official purposes in Ireland where you need to show evidence that you are married. If the certificate is in a foreign language, you must provide an official translation or a translation from a recognised translation agency.

There is no fee charged for the registration of a marriage, or for the correction of errors on a marriage certificate. Fees are charged for copies of certificates.

A certificate is issued for social welfare purposes at a reduced cost. Evidence it is for social welfare purposes is required, such as a letter from the Department of Social Protection.

The fees charged for a certificate are as follows:

• €20 for a full standard certificate
• €0 for a copy for social welfare purposes (letter from Department of Social Protection required)
• €5 for an uncertified copy of an entry in the Register
• €10 to have a certificate authenticated (only available from the General Register Office)

You can request a Multilingual Standard Form (MSF) for birth, death, marriage and civil partnership certificates issued by the General Register Office. The purpose of an MSF is to provide a translation of the public document.

The MSF itself has no legal effect. It is a translation aid and is only of use when used with the original certificate. If you want an MSF, you must state which EU language you want. You must request your MSF when applying for the certificate from the General Register Office in Roscommon. There is no additional fee for a Multilingual Standard Form.

If you got married in Ireland (whether by civil, secular or religious ceremony) you can order a copy of your marriage certificate online (full standard certificates only), by post using an application form (pdf), by phone or in person at any Civil Registration Service. You will need to provide the date (or approximate date if not known) and place of the marriage, and the full names of the couple before they married.

Postage for online orders is €2 per order in Ireland and €3 per order outside of Ireland. Delivery time depends on how long it takes to locate the certificate and where it is being posted to. You will receive a full refund if the record cannot be found.

The General Register Office maintains a family research facility known as the GRO Research Room at Werburgh Street, Dublin 2, where you can search the indexes to the registers and purchase photocopies of records. If you wish to order certified copies of entries, you can do so from the General Register Office in Roscommon (see contact details below).

The Research Room currently has a walk in service on Tuesdays only, 10am - 12.30pm, 2pm – 4.30pm. An email service is available 5 days a week at GROResearchRoom@welfare.ie.

You can search the indexes to the registers including:

• Births registered on the island of Ireland between 1 January 1864 and 31 December 1921 inclusive, and in the Republic of Ireland from 1922 onwards
• Deaths registered on the island of Ireland between 1 January 1864 and 31 December 1921 inclusive and in the Republic of Ireland from 1922 onwards
• Marriages registered on the island of Ireland between 1 April 1845 and 31 December 1921 inclusive and in the Republic of Ireland from 1922 onwards
• Domestic adoptions registered in Ireland from 10 July 1953 onwards

You can also find historic church and civil records of births, marriages and deaths on irishgenealogy.ie.

• Births 1864-1922
• Marriages 1845-1947
• Deaths 1878-1972