Not a British Citizen - can we still get married in England?
by James Cole | 11 April, 2008 - 15:52
Dear Resident Reverend,
Is it possible for me to marrying my children's father who is Nigerian - although he is not a British citizen although has been in Scotland for 20 years. We are not able to marry in any Scottish church.
Can you advise if we would need to come to England in order to be married.
Thank you,
Lynda
Comments
Hi Lynda
You haven't given much detail to help me out here. After 20 years residency I'm not sure why you feel you can't get married in Scotland. Have you researched this? Try this website
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files/rm1text.pdf
If you want to get married in England one of you would need to come and live for a while in order to fulfil qualifying residence. It sounds as if you would need to apply for a Common Licence. If you have a link with a parish in England you could contact the minister and talk through this in detail.
Otherwise do ask the editor of Newlyweds to forward me your email and give me some more details to work with so I can advise you better.
Best wishes
Jan
Jan,
my partner is not a british citizen and does not have legal rights to stay in this country hence the reason I am asking, due to the fact the laws have changed - would we have to go to Nigeria to get married
Hi Lynda
You can still get married but it would need to be by Common licence and the Church would probably want to see a letter from the Nigerian embassy confirming that the marriage would be accepted as legal in that country.