Getting married in the Netherlands

Im about to get married here. I have not gotten into it jet as we have had so much to do after we moved here 4 month ago. BUT the nabour said that every monday you can get married for free. You may have to get married while other people get married, like massmarrige. I'll come back when I know more about this.

Hi Hravn!

Thanks for your contribution.

Armand

I'm also about to get married.  You have to register with the gemeente--there may be different procedures depending on what kind of residency permit you have.  I have a 5-year permanent residence permit, so basically I follow the same procedures as any other Dutch person.  From what I understand, it's a relatively simple matter to file the paperwork, but you may need several forms of ID and if you are from another country, you may need a notarized statement saying that you're not already married. 

After that, you need to arrange the ceremonies. I haven't heard of the mass civil ceremonies, nor have I seen it here.  I do know that most couples that get married have the civil ceremony (the one that counts) in the Stadhuis, and then they either go to a church, or move to a reception hall.  Each side needs two witnesses for the civil ceremony. 

I'm not sure how long it takes to do everything, but I'd give it a month to file the paperwork and longer to arrange the ceremonies, if you're having one.  Dutch bureaucracy is typically reasonably efficient.

julynn wrote:

After that, you need to arrange the ceremonies. I haven't heard of the mass civil ceremonies, nor have I seen it here.  I do know that most couples that get married have the civil ceremony (the one that counts) in the Stadhuis, and then they either go to a church, or move to a reception hall.  Each side needs two witnesses for the civil ceremony.

Hallo
I have permit to be here for the rest of my life So everything is in order.
The mass sermonie is in ONE perticultar place here in Netherlands and its a legal ceremony where you need witnesses and everything. Im gonna check with my nabour about where it is ect.

Hravn wrote:

BUT the nabour said that every monday you can get married for free.

Not in every city. It used to be (30 y ago) but nowadays every city/county has it own rules about that.

Get informed about the prices: cities/county's have different prices. Also every day of the week is a different price. Saturdays are the most expensive. SOme cities you can get married even at Sundays (even more expensive).

Big cities are more expensive than small villages.

Good luck with the planning of the wedding

I am married here and I can say one thing: paper done was a hell!!!
All my papers should have an apostila , you have to be registered to council , have insurance and get papers from your country(as foreign) which can prove that you are not married there.
The cherry on top is the fact that after marriage ceremony , dutch law doesn't change woman surname after her husband. You can use your husband surname (Christmass cards ) . introducing yourself lol) but not on passport.So you stay with your maiden name and married with ....xyz)

Hi. wonder if someone could help here. I'm an Australian with dual nationality. Australian & Dutch. My partner is Dutch. We are going to the Netherlands in June and want to get married in front of out families. the question is when we return with our marriage certificate where do we register out marriage in Australia?

I've been living in the netherlands legally for 7 years, first as a student and then as a ZZP'r, which means i have my own business.
My boyfriend and i want to get married and we thought what the heck? why not try to change my purpose of stay and no longer deal with renewing my visum every year. So far we filled in the M-46, and it's been 3 months and we haven't heard a word.
after this procedure i heard we should ask for an "ondertrouw", 14 days or more later we can finally get married!.
Even though this is a very tedious endeavour, we really want this.
Can anyone help us with what type of form we should fill in afterwards?, the IND hasn't been clear on whether or not this is even a possibility or what kind of papers will be necessary.
Any help would be more than welcome ^_^

Ondertrouw means nothing more then that you want to get marry, official engaged. Therefore you and your fiancée to be, have to go to the city hall, Burgerzaken department.
Most of the time you have to make an appointment at forehand and you can ask what you need to bring with you.

That's all!

Good luck!

There is one free of charge day to get married in one week. its different per gemeente. Otherwise it cost you 350 or more :-)

Hi! I am getting married with my dutch boyfriend  on Aigust 2014 but we will visit the city hall on Feb 2014, to submit our documents to inform them about our intention to marry,.

I just want to know how long will it take for them to approve after we submit our papers? Does it take months?

I hope someone can give me an info. Thank you!

Hi ms.violet,

Welcome on board to this site.
Normally you can marry after two weeks when you went first to the city hall for the "ondertrouw".

I can imagine that in some cases this period can take longer during the documents or other "obstacles".
I advise you to discuss this with the civil servant. He or she will contact you in case if something is wrong or missing.
So in your case you have plenty of time to focus on your wedding.

The dutch immigration will check if you are "really getting married" or so. U will need to fill some paperwork out and the "gemeente" will send it out. Within a few weeks u will hear an answer.
And please be patient. Doublecheck your paperwork ( apostille etc) and u will be ok.

Hi, I am an American x pat trying to marry my Dutch boyfriend in Zwolle.  So many different responses from the town hall my head hurts. 

Does anyone know if my birth certificate as is, is ok?   American consulate doesn't notarize, legalize, etc this doc, but Zwolle town halls says it needs to be.   So only way to get the birth cert legalized, etc is to go to the USA and get it done.   In that case I would just get married in the US, seems easier.

Has anyone else come across this? 

Thanks!

I am from Florida. So I was able to send a copy of my passport to my friend to pick up recent( less than 6 months old as requested) from there on she sent it to Secretary of State for Apostille.
20 usd a piece. Moneyorder or check.

Hi..I am an American woman that married a dutch man 1 year ago .I had to have my previous divorce papers,birth certificate apostatized ..they put a big gold embossed stamp on your papers .The papers are stapled in a certain order and if you remove the staple it has to go through the process all over again so beware of that .

I was here living with my boyfriend in the Netherlands and mailed my papers via certified registered mail to my parents and they took them to the appropriate agencies like the recorders office and got it done and mailed back .It was about $60.00 for the Apostiles plus the mailing fees etc .Total time elapsed for all this to be done and returned to me was three weeks...mail can take a while here .

Every document must have been apostiled within 6 months of requesting Ondertrouw.This refers to the statutory requirement in the Netherlands
to formally register the intention to marry.

Congrats and good luck

Thanks for the replies.


I found a site you can order online and have shipped internationally!   Maybe other states have this too....

michigan.gov/mdch/0,4612,7-132-4645_6245---,00.html

Thats is correct...in my case I am from California and just had to have my parent walk my papers into the Sacramento Offices.

:-)

Hi all,

I am foreigner, about to get marry with Mr A from country X. The marriage will be held in country X. But it still a civil marriage. After the civil marriage he will be moved by the company to work in Netherlands. 

As a Catholic, we have an obligation to marry in the church also. Therefore we have plan to marry in the church of Netherlands.

Is it possible? Can you share information or testimony about that.

thx,

is that possible to get married easily ?
I think it's something complicated in Netherlands

I hear that it's need to get apostle papers .
i want to get married in Netherlands , but *** this site makes me crazy they told me that i have to get Marriage Certificate and it's must be Apostilled

If you want to get married in Holland and want to know exactly what how and when, go to the gemeente huis. You will get a paper with all the list of things you have to do. Pretty simple actually...

thx for sharing this information thx

Hi Gisellees,

Welcome on board

Please note that this thread here is a bit old

Feel free to please start a new topic with all your questions on the Netherlands Forum for better interactions please

Thank you

Maximilien

oh  thanks for noticing me that,hope I didn't bother you guys in the forum:)

@ Zaid: welcome on board 

Just a small reminder that this blog is not a dating site and its not allowed to contact women for that purpose.
If you do and they reported you, you'll get banned or worse, you loose your membership.

thanks very usful post

What is apostelize?