How to Get Legally Married in Scotland from Canada
Our beautiful wedding location, still captured from our wedding video by Stag and Doe Weddings
Looking to get married in one of the (arguably) most beautiful countries in the world?
As someone who went through the entire process, I can help guide you through all of the intricacies!
Side Note: Getting married in a foreign country is more tedious and expensive than getting married at home, however, if it is important to you to be legally married when you have your wedding, and not sign documents prior, here are the steps to take.
Also, it IS legal to get married in a foreign country from Canada, given that the Marriage Certificate that is issued is written in one of our national languages. It can become an issue if you get married in a country where the marriage certificate is not issued in the English Language, and at the very least you will have to hire a certified translator. Just be sure to do your research!
Step 1: Start Planning
Timelines are a little tight when planning a destination wedding, so I advise to plan your wedding at least six months in advance to line up all the necessary paperwork. In Scotland, you can either have a religious ceremony, or a humanist ceremony. Unlike other places, you are allowed to be married anywhere in Scotland, including the great outdoors, and you don’t have to book a designated venue. This means if you want to be married on top of a hill overlooking a loch, or in the middle of a field, you are able to!
Pick a location that you would like to be married, as this is important for hiring your vendors, as well as contacting the correct Registrar’s Office to legalize your marriage.
At this point you can start hiring your vendors, including a Humanist Celebrant, or (someone religious) to officiate your wedding.
We went with a Humanist Celebrant, and we were overjoyed with our ceremony. Everything was so personalized to us, and our celebrant was absolutely amazing. She even walked up our designated hill with our 12 guests for 45 minutes with us! I highly recommend a humanist ceremony.
Step 2: Prepare Paperwork, and familiarize yourself with the process
When I say that timelines for legal paperwork feel tight, I mean it. So i recommend preparing as far ahead in advance as possible so you are ready to file it when the time is right.
You will need:
A UK Marriage Visa
Register your intended marriage with the local Registrar’s Office
Applying for a UK Marriage Visa:
You are able to apply for your UK Marriage Visa only 3 months ahead of your intended arrival to the UK. (If you have questions on this exact timeline, reach out to the UK Visa and Immigration Office, as the Visa does last for I believe six months. So if you plan for multiple trips before your wedding, you may be able to apply for you visa further than the 3 months in advance).
You can start your form online and save, however, the application will be deleted if left for a period of time. I recommend only starting the application about a month ahead of when you plan to submit it.
What you need to submit your visa application:
Your Canadian Passport
The completed application
The application is rather lengthy, but in short, have all parental info, have proof that you intend to be married (bookings for your celebrant/religious venue, emails with the registrar, etc), proof of funds that you have money to also leave the country
To appear in person at a designated VFS Global Office, where they take your biometrics (fingerprints and photos), and submit your passport and application for processing. This is not optional, and you must be prepared to travel to an office shortly after submitting your application online. You can find a list of their offices on the UK Visa and Immigration website.
For us, the appointment was booked within three days of us submitting the online form, and the appointment only lasted about fifteen minutes. Fortunately, the closest office was only an hour away, but there are only several throughout the country, and you might not be as lucky. Plan in advance to take time to go.
Once you’ve submitted your Visa application, you must wait for your passport and visa to be returned to you before you can submit your Intent to Marry to the local Registrar’s Office.
Submitting the Registration of Your Marriage:
When you need to submit your paperwork to the Registrar’s Office:
No more than 3 months from your intended wedding, but absolutely no less than one month prior to your wedding notice must be received.
The local registrar offices can be a great help to making sure that you have all of your bases covered (though they weren’t much assistance with questions on the visa).
What you will need to send via Post to your Registrar Office (this can only be mailed, they do not accept email copies)
- An M10 which is your Declaration of Marriage for each person
- Marriage Celebrant and Witness Details form
- Declaration of Status by Non UK Nationals for each person
- Photocopies of each person’s birth certificate
Proof of your usual residence for both persons
2 Passport Photos of each person
A photocopy of your passports and respective Visas
Once the registrar’s office has recieved your documents, you must call and pay the respective fees for them to file your Marriage Schedule. You will also set up an appointment the week before your wedding for when you must appear in person to pick up your marriage schedule. You will also have to bring your passports with visas, and the original copy of your birth certificates for validation. Without those you will not receive your Marriage Schedule.
Step 3; Hop on the plane and go get married!
Just be sure that you allow yourself time to get where you need to go, and allot time to meet with the registrar to collect your marriage schedule and provide your documents in person.
After your wedding, the marriage schedule needs to be brought back to the Registrar’s Office, but you do not need to take it in person, nor does it have to be dropped off during business hours. Our celebrant was kind enough to take ours for us, so we didn’t have to take the trip in to town.
Congrats! You’re married!
Your marriage certificate will get mailed to you within a couple of weeks, and then just use that when changing names etc. Ours took about 3 weeks from our wedding date, and it was in our hands.
Was this helpful?
It definitely felt a bit overwhelming, but if you plan ahead, you should have no problems getting legally married in Scotland!