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A marriage certificate gets mentioned once every few years, so it sits quietly in a cupboard until it is suddenly needed: for an inheritance, for a divorce, to arrange a pension or for documents abroad. And that is exactly when it turns out that it was lost during a move, stayed with a former spouse or simply fell apart with age. Let us look at how to obtain a repeat marriage certificate, who is entitled to it and what to do if you are not in Ukraine right now.
Key points
The most common life situations:
It is worth remembering separately: the certificate confirms the fact that the marriage was registered, but it does not show whether the marriage is still in force. If you need current information, an extract from the register is requested.
A repeat certificate is issued to the persons the civil status record was drawn up for, that is to the husband and the wife. Each spouse can apply on their own: the consent of the other is not needed.
What this means in practice: the wife or the husband receives the document after confirming their identity; outsiders, including the adult children of the spouses, will not obtain a repeat certificate of their parents’ marriage on their own; any person can act as a representative under a notarised power of attorney from someone who is entitled; if one of the spouses has died, inheritance matters more often rely on an extract from the register, which is issued to a wider circle of people.
We have covered separately who exactly is entitled to an extract and how it differs from a certificate: extract from DRATS: how to obtain it.
Step 1. Prepare your passport or another identity document. If a representative applies, a notarised power of attorney is needed.
Step 2. Apply to a DRATS office. If the record is already in the electronic register, any office will do, not only the one where the marriage was registered.
Step 3. Submit the application and pay the established charge. The amounts of state charges are reviewed from time to time, so for the current amounts and any available exemptions please confirm at the time of your inquiry.
Step 4. Receive the document and check the details straight away: the surnames before and after the marriage, the date of registration, the number of the civil status record. A mistake spotted on the spot is corrected far more easily.
If the record is not in the register, the office sends a request to the place where the paper record book is kept. This makes the timeline longer, but the matter is usually resolved.
A frequent situation: a person needs a document about an old marriage that was dissolved long ago. For example, to show the chain of surname changes or for inheritance matters.
A simple rule applies here: the marriage certificate confirms the fact of registration itself and remains a valid document about that event, but to confirm the current status an extract from the register is needed. If a foreign institution wants to see that you are not currently married, the marriage certificate will not help it.
For a marriage abroad the requirements are even more specific, and a completely different document is more often needed there. We wrote about this separately: marital status registry reference for a marriage abroad.
Three scenarios are possible here:
The first thing worth doing is to check whether the record is in the register. This check takes little time and immediately shows which route you need.
The scheme is standard for all DRATS documents:
It is worth thinking through the order of the apostille and the translation in advance, because a mistake here means repeating the whole procedure. We have covered all the options in the article apostille on DRATS documents.
A practical tip: in the power of attorney, spell out from the start the powers both to obtain documents at DRATS and to submit them for an apostille. Adding them later from a distance means several more weeks.
Discrepancies in the spelling of surnames in a marriage certificate happen often, especially in old documents, and it is exactly these that later break the chain when arranging an inheritance or a pension.
The order of actions is as follows: changes are first made to the civil status record, and only then is a new certificate with the correct details issued. If there are not enough documents for the administrative route, the matter is decided by a court. In detail about this in the article how to correct a mistake in a civil status record.
If you are in Ukraine and the record is in the register, a repeat certificate is obtained in a single visit. Help is needed in the other cases: you are abroad; the marriage was registered in territory that is now occupied; the record is not in the register; the documents have different spellings of the surname; the document is needed as part of a chain with an apostille and a translation for a specific country; the matter concerns an inheritance case with deadlines. The lawyers of LexOn take this on, from checking the register to a finished package of documents. The whole chain can be handed over as a turnkey service: restoration of DRATS documents and apostille.
Yes. Each spouse is a person the civil status record was drawn up for, so they apply on their own.
The certificate confirms the fact that the marriage was registered, and it really was. But if you need a document about the current status, order an extract from the register: it will show that the marriage has been dissolved.
They will not be issued a repeat marriage certificate on their own. For inheritance and other matters an extract from the register is usually used, or they act under a power of attorney from the parent who is alive.
If the record is in the electronic register, the matter is usually resolved during the visit. It takes longer if the record has to be retrieved from paper record books in another region.
Some DRATS services are available online, but the finished document has to be collected by the applicant in person. For those who are abroad, the option with a representative under a power of attorney usually turns out to be more convenient.
The foreign document is legalised or apostilled, translated and submitted in Ukraine for the relevant actions. The procedure depends on the country, so it is worth confirming the requirements in advance.
The order depends on the purpose. For an inheritance, the documents that prove the family relationship with the deceased are usually restored first. It is smarter to draw up a full list of the documents you need once than to restore them one by one and pay the charges twice.
Disclaimer: this article is for information purposes and is not legal advice. Procedures and the amounts of charges may change. To resolve your particular situation, please consult a lawyer.
Need help with your specific situation? Get an online consultation with a Ukrainian lawyer at LEXON, we work 24/7: +380 97 037 73 33.
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