According
to statistics, between around 1 in 5 of all marriages now takes place abroad,
with couples increasingly wishing to elude the unpredictable English weather
and the pressure of inviting distant relatives to large and costly weddings at
home.
However,
if you do choose to marry abroad, you shouldn’t just focus on the beautiful
location, as the case of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall reminds us. In 1999, when
Hall petitioned for divorce from Jagger, he famously contested that they were
never legally married as their ceremony in Bali was not official. To avoid this
kind of uncertainty, what steps should you take to make sure you marriage is
legal in the UK?
Firstly,
it’s important to realise that the validity of your marriage is governed
primarily by the country in which you marry not the country where you live. You
must therefore comply with the formal requirements of that country. You should
contact the embassy or consulate of the country where you intend to marry
before your wedding to find out what documentation you will need and what other
formalities you need to follow. If you follow the correct process according to
the local law, then your marriage stands the best chance of being recognised in
the UK.
However,
you still need to meet the legal requirements for marriage in your home country
in so far as your capacity to marry is concerned. For example, you must be of
the minimum age to marry legally according to your home country’s laws.
If you
don’t follow these steps then you could risk not knowing whether you are
legally married or not. This could affect how your assets are dealt with upon
death. However, if before then you wish to divorce, it may be tricky proving to
a judge that your marriage was ever valid – the risk is that if you were not validly
married, you would not be entitled to all the financial remedies available on
divorce, leaving you with an uncertain outcome. Furthermore, if you wish to
re-marry, it’s important to make sure any previous marriage was properly ended
– this can become a problem if you are unsure whether the previous marriage was
in fact ever legal.
Cripps’s
expert family lawyers based in Tunbridge Wells and London are able to advise on
international family law issues. Please contact the head of the family team,
Alex Davies on +44 (0) 1892 506326 or alex.davies@cripps.co.uk