Background: I am an Indian citizen, Hindu got married to a Bulgarian citizen, Christian in 2017 (2 years ago). We both are currently residing in USA. First, we had a court marriage in USA after which we got a marriage certificate from that place of solemnization. After a month, we had a wedding ceremony in Bulgaria, which included a mix of Bulgarian rituals and Indian rituals like saat phere, mangalsutra, garlands exchange. This was all done without any presence of a priest. We did not get a marriage certificate from Bulgaria as it was overly complicated process. Situation: The USA marriage certificate has “current name” fields and “new name” fields on it with the option to specify a “new name” for the bride/groom at the time of applying. If you provide a “new name” entry, it does not imply that the name is changed upon solemnization of marriage until you actually request the change at USA government institutions (One of the law’s in USA). We decided to put a “new name” entry while requesting the certificate in 2017 but have not changed the current name to this new name till date and have no intention of changing it in the future. And it is completely legal in USA. However, we recently realized that this is an issue outside USA in countries like Bulgaria where our marriage cannot be registered as the government says our name is changed and we need to update all documents first in order to register the marriage. Question: Because of the above complication, one option is to get our USA marriage certificate amended which requires us to file a petition with superior court, get court order and submit an amendment request - (a lot of time and money). Second option is if India could provide a marriage certificate on our current names. Could we get our marriage registered in India (Mumbai where I am born and my family lives) and get a marriage certificate from India on basis of our marriage ceremony pictures in Bulgaria in 2017? If yes, what is the process under special marriage act and how difficult will it be for our case?
Under the special marriage act a person can marry if the two are of different Faith. He marriage officer shall register the marriage. The person must have lived 30 days prior to giving notice of the intended marriage to the marriage officer.
Regards
You have to come here and live for a time period. Then the marriage would be registered.
Regards
Dear Querist
As per India Law your marriage is not legal because this marriage was solemnized neither as per Hindu Law nor as per Christian Law, you have to solemnized your marriage again in India Under Special Marriage Act-1954 to get the marriage certificate.
you may file an application for intend to marry before your area's sub registrar/Registrar of Marriage who will fixed the date for marriage after 30 days of your application and on that day, you have to appear before him/her along with your would be wife with the witnesses.
all of you(you, your wife, witnesses should have the passport size photographs, Original Identity and Address proof)
Feel Free to Call
See you have already married as per US law you cannot get marriage certificate for same in India. Sir the certificate cannot be granted as the First marriage in US is valid you cannot marry second time to same person the bulgarian marriage is as such not valid.
your marriage was solemnised first in USA and you have court marriage certificate in USA
2) if at all registration has to be done it has to be done on basis of US marriage certificate and not bulgarian
3) better option is to get US marriage certificate amended to reflect your correct names
How Indian government provide you a marriage certificate as the marriage is not soleminised under foreign marriage Act or in India. You will not get the same from India for the ceremony done in Bulgaria.
Sir , while marriage is registered in India, it requires witness who testify that they were present in the ceremony. Your marriage is not done in India. You will have to bring the foreign witness to India to do the same.
Now as per my advise you should stick to the US marriage certificate.
Marriage Certificate implies that the parties are married since. Repeating marriage rituals doesn't change the parties to marriage. Your wedlock begun in US in US at Date X. The Certificate should corraborate the real fact.
Don't make more certificate s. The contradiction s in Certificate s will become a problem for you.
Stock to one Marriage Certificate. Comply to the Laws and Procedures that are required in order to use the Certificate. Complete the formalities as soon as possible. Complete the formalities in regard to the Initial Marriage Certificate. Use it wherever you need to.
I know that this is a costly and tedious procedure in US. Marriage certificate is a kind of important Document, which should be obtained through due process. Request you to complete the due process as soon as possible and finish the issue once for all.
You can apply at Indian Embassy for marriage, there marriage certificate will issue by marriage office valid all over world. 30 days notice will issue to call for objection and than duly married as per Indian Law too.
Hi
Yes you could get Indian Marriage Certificate after few formalities.
Ofcourse the process of getting Indian Certificate will be easier than getting the name amended in USA. But coming to India for specially the marriage Certificate will be equally costly as to the charges of getting name amended in USA. Confirm about the expenditures of both processes and go ahead
Thank you
1. You have nneither married as per Hindu Marriage Act nor Special Marriage Act but had married as per fthe Act of some foreign land.
2. You have not even married following Hindu customs and rituals since for solemnising the Hindu marriage , both the parties shall have to be Hindu.
3. So, it will be difficulkt for you to register the marriage you conducted at Bulgaria without having any priest and both not being from the same Hindu religion.
4. However, you can register your marriage in India as per Special Marriage Act without going though any social/religious marriage.
5. You can also contact the local Indian Consulate and get your marrige registered as per Foreign Marriage Act.
The marriages which are registered abroad need to be registered in India under the Special Marriage Act, 1954. For this purpose, you are required to obtain a letter from the embassy of the country in which the marriage has been registered. After receiving the letter, you have to follow the procedure mentioned in the Indian Law to get the marriage registered
Yes it is a possibility in India that you can apply for your marriage registration after complying due process required for getting married in India under special Marriage Act after the completion of the process you will be issue the marriage certificate in your previous names one person must be living in India for 30 days for this process which is mandatory to complete the legal formalities
Marriage certificate cannot be procured from India as the marriage was not solemnised in India.
I would advise you to get the marriage certificate issued by the US authority rectified. Getting multiple marriage certificates is going to cause more harm than good, rest it's your choice.
Just to clarify, we do not want to marry again in India and get a new certificate with a new date. We want to simply make use of our US marriage or Bulgarian wedding ceremony to get a certificate from India which has the exact same date as per our marriage in 2017. As per me understanding of all the responses: - We cannot obtain marriage certificate in India based on or wedding ceremony conducted in Bulgaria. - If we want to get a certificate from India based on our US marriage / certificate, then we may need to obtain a letter from the US embassy and follow the Indian Law procedures to get the marriage registered under Special Marriage Act, with one of us being present in India 30 days before the registration. But does this guarantee that the certificate from India will have our original marriage date in 2017 or would it be issued with current date of registry office visit? If this is the case, that would be the procedure to initiate the process? Is there a link you can point me out to with more details?
If you get the registration done in India under the Special Marriage Act, certificate would be issued with the latest date.
You can register marriage performed abroad in India under provisions of SMA
2) it would bear registration date and marriage date
No it will not have your earlier date. You can't again soleminised your marriage under special marriage Act in India. As you are already married. One of the condition for special marriage Act is that you should be single or legally divorced
See you can register marriage under Foreigners marriage act if condition is satisfied , you cannot register marriage under special marriage act.
NO, certificate will bear present date .
Since your marriage was solemnised and registered in US as per US laws, the subsequent functions that took place in Bulgaria cannot be considered as solemnisation of marriage.
If you want to register the marriage in India as per the ceremonies held in Bulgaria then you will be considered to suppress the material fact of marriage in US and the registration of marriage in US.
You may see for the options which would be more convenient to you and get it done without taking much risk on legal issues.
Since you have got the marriage registered in US as per US laws, it may not be possible for re-registration of your marriage once again in India.
As per foreign marriage act:
Any person may, before the expiration
of thirty days from the date of publication of the notice under
section 7, object to the marriage on the ground that it would
contravene one or more of the conditions specified in section 4.
Procedure on receipt of objection.-(1)If an objection is made
under section 8 to an intended marriage, the Marriage Officer shall
not solemnize the marriage until he has inquired into the matter of
the objection in such manner as he thinks fit and is satisfied that it
ought not to prevent the solemnization of the marriage or the
objection is withdrawn by the person making it.
(2) Where a Marriage Officer after making any such inquiry
entertains a doubt in respect of any objection, he shall transmit the
record with such statement respecting the matter as he thinks fit to
the Central Government; and the Central Government, after
making such further inquiry into the matter and after obtaining such
advice as it thinks fit, shall give its decision thereon in writing to
the Marriage Officer, who shall act in conformity with the decision of
the Central Government.
Yes the certificate obtained in India would have the date when you married in a foreign country.
Regards
Marriage and registration are 2 different things. Registration only means that it has been entered into govt records. The marriage may have been performed a decade ago.
Dear
If you want to register your marriage in India then you can get the US Marriage Certificate attested from Indian Consulate and then on basis of this you can get marraige certificate in India under special marriage act.
The will contain both dates date of marriage and date of registration of marriage.
But you cannot get the marriage Certificate on basis of marriage performed in Bulgaria.
