Who can get married in Australia?

So you've met your person and decided to get married...congratulations! But now you are wondering if you can get married in Australia?

You might be wondering if you need to be an Australian Citizen or have a particular residency visa to get married in Australia. Or you might have recently moved to Australia and be unsure if there is a minimum requirement of time that you have to have been in Australia before you can get married here. Or maybe you love the idea of getting married in Australia while you’re on holidays here – but you’re not sure if this is legally allowed.

Legal requirements for marriage in Australia, a person must:

• not be married to someone else

• not be marrying a parent, grandparent, child, grandchild or sibling

• be at least eighteen years old

• understand what marriage means and freely consent to marrying

As well as this, there are other legal requirements that a celebrant will guide you through.

You must:

• give written notice of your intention to marry (the document is helpfully called Notice of Intended Marriage) to your celebrant, within the required time frame of a minimum of one month prior to the ceremony

• have two people present at the ceremony who can be the legal witnesses (see this blog post Who Can Witness a Wedding)

• use specific wording during the ceremony

To get married in Australia, you don't have to be an Australian citizen, and there is no minimum residency requirement to get married in Australia.

• You can only get legally married to one person at a time

• You can't get married if you are currently married.

  
  

So if the two of you were legally married in your own country, you can’t be legally married again in Australia. (You can still have a have a symbolic ceremony here, eg a commitment ceremony or renewal of vows, but it has to be clear that it's not a legally-binding ceremony.)

You also can’t get married if you are legally married to someone else, for example if you’re in the process of a divorce but the divorce is still pending.

• You can’t marry someone you’re in a prohibited relationship with

• You can’t marry your mum or dad, your child, your grandparent, your grandchild or any of your siblings.

To get married in Australia, you have to be at least 18 years old. A person under 18 years is not of marriageable age, and cannot be a party to a marriage (unless the person obtains an order from a judge or magistrate under section 12 of the Marriage Act.

You have to understand what marriage is, and freely consent to the marriage

Marriage according to law in Australia, is the union of two people, to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life. An understanding of marriage is necessary so that both parties know what it means to enter into this union..

Celebrants are checking the consent of both parties the whole time up to and including the ceremony.