How to get married abroad. Features of marriage by Russian citizens in some foreign countries

Following fashion trends, an increasing number of Russian lovers seek to marry abroad, making the celebration more vivid and unforgettable.

Single women, not having met their fate in the expanses of the Motherland, enter into relationships with foreigners, registering their marriage in accordance with the current legislation of another state.

When the days of joyful euphoria are left behind, many "young" begin to worry about the question: "Will their union have legal force in their homeland?" and “How to legalize a marriage contracted abroad in Russia?”. Today's article is devoted to the answers to all these questions.

Before proceeding to study the procedure for legalizing a family union, it is necessary to understand what this complex term is.

To legalize means to give a lawful character, to endow with legal force. That is, the legalization of marriage is a procedure for officially recognizing the legality of the fact of creating a new family, as well as giving it certain rights and obligations.

Registration of a marriage abroad is valid in Russia if the registration process complied with the current legislation of the country where the celebration took place, and also in the absence of factors established by the RF IC. They will be discussed below.

Another important condition for obtaining the official status of "newlyweds" is the legalization of a document confirming the fact of marriage / marriage - a marriage certificate. The procedure includes confirmation of the authenticity of the individual signature of the person who directly issued the marriage document, as well as the legitimacy of his actions.

You can record the fact of entering into marital relations in any foreign body that registers marriages. To do this, you will need to provide:

• birth certificate;
• a completed statement on the absence of official marriages at the time of registration of the union;
• a document confirming the termination of marital relations if one of the potential spouses is divorced;
• a copy of the internal identity card.

These documents must be translated into a foreign language with their subsequent certification in the prescribed manner, after which they should be legalized either by affixing an "Apostille" or on a general basis.

In order to bypass all the difficulties of legalization, it is better to hold the wedding ceremony within the walls of the Russian consulate or diplomatic mission.

What is it for?

Some ask the question: “Why is this legalization needed at all?” The answer is simple - for a quiet life without unnecessary problems.

The legalized union of two lovers will help in the following life situations:

• when making an entry about marriage in a Russian passport;
• during the change of surname;
• if the spouse is a representative of another country, then a legalized document will help him in obtaining Russian citizenship on favorable terms (not after five years, but after three years of joint family life);
• when registering the fact of the birth of joint children. Kids have the opportunity to automatically receive the status of "citizen of Russia".

After making a mark on the registration of the act of marriage in your Russian document, a certain range of legal transactions, for example, the sale of real estate, will be impossible without obtaining the consent of the second spouse.

What does the law say?

As the law says, namely: marriage relations registered in the prescribed manner on the territory of a foreign state are recognized as valid, subject to the simultaneous observance of the following rules:

• registration of marital relations should not contradict the established norms of the legislation of a foreign state;
• the absence of factors that impede the process of registering the act of marriage.

Article 14 of the Family Code clearly defines the circle of circumstances that prevent the official recognition of marriages concluded outside the borders of the Russian Federation:

1. persons who have decided to enter into a legal relationship, at the time of registration, should not have current entries in the passport about existing marriages. Thus, if one of the newlyweds was married at the time of the union, and this marriage was officially recognized by Russian law, then the newly formed family is considered fictitious;
2. it is illegal to register relationships between blood relatives, such as brothers and sisters, father and daughter, mother and son, grandmothers and grandchildren, grandfathers and granddaughters, as well as:
3. in case of official recognition of one of the applicants as incompetent.

So, if all the requirements are met, the union of two people acquires a legal character, even if some conditions, for example, the age of entry into marriage or the monogamy of the union, do not meet the requirements of Russian law.

How to legalize a foreign marriage certificate?

Even before returning home to Russia, care should be taken to give a legal character to a document confirming the fact that information has been entered in the marriage registration book. Since marriage can be legalized only in the country and in the body where the certificate of the concluded union was issued.

- one of the most popular options. And all because marriage in the United States does not require special formalities and a long waiting period.

If you want to save time, you can. To do this, you just need to go through a simple user registration and confirmation procedure.

Simplified

This is the easiest way to recognize the legality of a document.

It comes down to affixing a special stamp on the form of the certificate - "Apostille", confirming the authenticity of the document. No additional verification steps are required.

This option is applicable when concluding a family union in a country that is a party to the Hague Convention, which in October 1961 abolished the need to legalize foreign documentary papers. Our country joined its ranks in 1992.

Recognition of the legality of marriage in the Russian Federation from the spouses will only be required:

• contact the authority that issued the document;
• Apostille the marriage certificate.

In addition to the Hague Agreement, our country has similar contractual relations, implying the abolition of legalization, with such countries as Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Algeria, Bulgaria and other states.

In 1993, the CIS countries and the Russian Federation signed the Convention on Mutual Assistance in Family, Criminal, Legal and Civil Matters. If you marry in another country that has signed this Convention, then official documents issued by the authorities of one country are valid in Russia.

It should be noted that on the basis of the current law, all apostilled documents are subject to mandatory translation and certification in a notary's office.

In the usual way

When holding a celebration on the territory of a country that has not joined the Hague Convention and other similar unions, legalization of documents is carried out on a general basis.

To do this, it is necessary to provide the Russian consulate located in the country where the "young" married, the following package of documents:

• an application filled out according to the established model (you can get it directly from the organization or by printing it from the official website of the institution or from the website of public services);
• foreign and Russian passports;
• document confirming marriage;
• paid receipt of the fee (the established fee for the provision of consular services is thirty US dollars).

After the employee of the body checks the correctness of filling out the submitted documents, they are registered, and the applicant is given a receipt for receiving official papers, and it should also contain specific information about the time and calendar date of the second request.

The law establishes a period of five working days for consideration of the application submitted by the client and the issuance of a legalized document or registration of a refusal to legalize.

An employee of the organization has the right to refuse to accept documents for legalization if he:

• was issued by a state that is part of the Hague Convention or another country with which a similar agreement was signed (there is no need to give legality to the papers);
• contradicts article 14 of the RF IC, that is, it falls into the list of circumstances that prevent the conclusion of family ties;
• contains data capable of discrediting the honor and dignity of a person;
• contains signatures, seals that do not correspond to the data indicated in the samples held by the Russian side;
• has various corrections (strikethroughs, typos);
• is poorly readable, i.e. certain difficulties arise when reading the document;
• required details such as signature, stamp or date are missing.

In order to avoid possible delays on the part of the consulate, it is advisable to translate into Russian in advance a document that requires legalization with mandatory certification by a notary.

20.11.2014

Surely you see the best day of your life not like everyone else. You would like to spend it somehow special, so that memories of it capture you for many, many years, and photos from the wedding album cause tears of joy and bright nostalgia.

And that's why you couldn't help thinking about having your wedding, say, on the ocean or in a centuries-old castle, right? But, unfortunately, within our Motherland there are no ocean beaches with white sand or Gothic castles. And if there are suitable places, then it is either not customary to hold wedding celebrations in them, or it is very expensive. In addition, our warm season is very short and it is not always possible to get married from May to September, but you really want your memories of it to be flooded with the summer sun. Therefore, it is not the first year that Russian families have been celebrating their birth abroad. And the first question that arises among future spouses who have decided for a wedding abroad, will the registration of such a marriage be valid in Russia?

Official registration of marriage abroad

Official registration of marriage abroad quite possible. This is due to legislation. Because "marriages between citizens of the Russian Federation and foreign citizens concluded outside the Russian Federation in compliance with the legislation of the state in whose territory they are concluded are recognized as valid in the Russian Federation if there are no obstacles to marriage provided for by law" - this is what the legislation says, namely , paragraph 1 of Art. 158 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation. What does this wording mean?

• The marriage must be concluded in accordance with the laws of the state in whose territory it is registered. In addition, the laws of a number of foreign states provide for the registration of marriages for citizens of the Russian Federation using the laws of the Russian Federation (RF IC). In this case, the marriage will be no different from the marriage registered here.
• Barriers to legal marriage are:
  • Being in an officially undissolved marriage of one of the future spouses (bigamy),
  • Close relatives (children and parents, grandfathers, grandmothers and grandchildren, full or half brothers and sisters, adoptive parents and adopted children),
  • Incapacity of at least one of the spouses.

It is to be expected that this issue has its own nuances. Mainly, we are talking about the fact that, after all, not in any country, citizens of the Russian Federation can marry, or only by observing certain conditions. And these restrictions do not come from our legislation, but from the law or religion of the chosen country. For example, the legislation of the country may exclude the registration of marriages between foreign citizens on its territory, or in Muslim countries this is prohibited by religion.

The cost of a wedding abroad will, of course, be higher than in Russia. The smallest budget is possible in the Czech Republic and Cyprus - 3-4 thousand euros for two. A wedding on the islands will cost at least 7,000 euros. Expensive, but worth it.

In which countries can citizens of the Russian Federation enter into an official marriage?

In fact, in many. The most popular among Russian tourists include:

Austria, Australia, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, Greece, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Cuba, Costa Rica, Mexico, about. Mauritius, New Zealand, Seychelles, Slovenia, USA, Fiji, Czech Republic, Sri Lanka, Jamaica.

It is in these countries marriage by foreign citizens causes the least questions and bureaucratic red tape.

Place of marriage abroad

There are usually two options here.

1. Russians can get married at the diplomatic mission/consulate of their country. In this case, the procedure for registering a marriage will be equated to registering a marriage on the territory of the Russian Federation, and it will not need to be legalized, or additionally legalized.
2. It is possible to register a marriage with the appropriate government agency of the country in which the marriage is registered. Usually this is the mayor's office or some local government that registers the marriages of citizens of its state. But in this case, the marriage certificate will need to be additionally legalized.

What documents are needed for marriage abroad, and what to do with them?

The standard list of documents includes:

• Russian passports,
• birth certificates,
• Documents confirming that the future spouses are not married (certificates of marital status, certificates of previous marriages (if any), certificate of divorce or death of the previous spouse, documents on the change of surname).

If you order marriage registration abroad through a travel agency, then all these documents must be provided to the manager no later than 6-8 weeks before the wedding day, and transferred to government agencies or the consulate immediately upon arrival in the country. But it is not allowed to transfer them in the form in which they are. Documents must be translated by a notarized translation into the state language of the host country and legalized. What does it mean?

In order for documents issued by Russian authorities to be valid in another country, it is necessary to legalize them, or legalize them. How complicated this procedure will be depends on the state in which the documents will be used. If a country is a party to the Hague Convention * of October 5, 1961, the multi-stage procedure is greatly simplified and replaced by apostilling of documents, that is, by affixing an apostille stamp at the consulate of the receiving state. To do this, you only need to provide translated and notarized documents to the consulate. If the country is not a party to the Hague Convention, the legalization of documents becomes more complicated and turns into a whole chain of procedures.

1. certification of a copy of the document and the accuracy of its translation into a foreign language by a notary office in the Russian Federation;
2. certification of the authenticity of the signature and seal of a notary in the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation (Moscow, B. Karetny per., 10; tel. 209-62-71);
3. confirmation of the authenticity of the seal of the Ministry of Justice of Russia and the signature of an official in the CD of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia (Moscow, 1st Neopalimovsky per., 12, tel. 244-37-97, office hours from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 15:00 to 17:00).
4. legalization of documents in the consulate of the state where they will be used, with confirmation by the foreign consul of the authenticity of the seal and signature of an authorized officer of the CD of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

It is not surprising that with such a rather complicated procedure for legalizing documents, an important factor in choosing a country is its membership in the Hague Treaty.

How to legalize a marriage contracted abroad?

Like when registering a marriage in the territory of the Russian Federation, the newlyweds will be issued a Marriage Certificate. But will it be valid in Russia? Yes, but, as mentioned above, if the document is not issued by the Russian consulate, then it also needs to be legalized. And the legalization of any document can be carried out only in the state in which it is issued. Accordingly, the newly-made spouses will need to visit the consulate of the Russian Federation where the marriage took place. Since the Russian Federation is a party to the Hague Convention, the legalization of a marriage certificate will be limited to apostille. But this procedure can take quite a long time - up to 6 months. Therefore, spouses usually receive an apostilled certificate already in their homeland. And on its basis, you need to affix the appropriate stamp in your passport at any convenient registry office.

How long before the registration of marriage do you need to arrive in the country?

There is no single answer to this question, but it is necessary to clarify it. Since this clause is spelled out in the legislation of most states. For example, you need to arrive in France no later than 10 days before the wedding, and on about. Mauritius - in just 72 hours, but keep in mind that marriages are registered there only from Monday to Friday.

Can a marriage contracted abroad be declared invalid?

Only in case that, if during the registration of marriage not all legislative norms were observed operating in the territory of the host state, or the rules for registering marriage by foreign citizens are violated. If the documents are in order, all the rules and conditions are met, then there is nothing to worry about.

Member countries of the Hague Convention: Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bulgaria, Belgium, Botswana, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Great Britain, Hungary , Venezuela, Germany, Gilbert and Ellis Islands, Grenada, Greece, Honduras, Dominica, Israel, India, Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, China (Hong Kong and Macau only), Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein , Luxembourg, Mauritius, Macedonia, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Mexico, Monaco, Namibia, Netherlands, Niue, Norway, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, El Salvador, San Marino , Samoa, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Swaziland, Seychelles, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, Slovakia, USA, Suriname, Tonga, Turkey, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Croatia, Switzerland, Sweden , Ukraine, Ecuador, Estonia, South Africa, Japan.

You can also register a marriage abroad. Such a marriage will be valid in Russia.

Recently, marriages concluded in other countries are becoming more and more popular. Russians are attracted to romantic or exotic surroundings.

Civil marriage in the Russian Federation

- This is an officially registered union of a man and a woman. Sometimes a civil marriage is called cohabitation without registration. But from a legal point of view, this is not true, such a relationship is called cohabitation.

Most often, registration takes place on the territory of Russia, but possible outside. This is regulated by Articles 14 and 158 of the Family Code. The first of them lists the obstacles to concluding a marriage union.

Algorithm for marriage by citizens of the Russian Federation in another country

To get married abroad, you must:

1. Find out the legal requirements in both countries;
2. Prepare documents;
3. Organize a trip;
4. In some countries, you will need to obtain permission from the authorities on the spot;
5. After the ceremony, you need to legalize.

To register a marriage abroad, it is necessary that there are no legislative obstacles on the part of both states.

Marriages are not allowed in Russia:

1. If at least one of the possible spouses is already married or married;
2. Between close relatives;
3. With incapacitated;
4. With persons under 18 (in some cases - 16) years.

Close relatives in this case are:

• parents and children;
• grandparents and grandchildren;
• brothers and sisters who have at least one common parent.

Other countries may have their own rules and restrictions, such as different minimum ages or government approvals. You need to find out about them before planning your wedding.

For example, marriages between non-Muslims are not registered in Muslim countries. Therefore, in most Asian countries, most likely, marriage will not work. But you can arrange a symbolic ceremony. Its difference is that it does not happen (it can be issued in Russia before or after the ceremony).

Application procedure (where to apply)

There are two fundamental options:

1. At the consulate or representative office of Russia in the territory of another state.
2. Where marriages take place according to the laws of another country.

In the first option, the marriage will be valid in Russia without additional formalities. But a beautiful exotic ceremony is possible only in the second. But it is for her that many couples go.

In most countries, registration with government agencies is required. In some, on the contrary, only church marriage is recognized. These are Israel, Iran and Iraq. In some, both forms of registration are possible.

List of required documents

To get married you will need:

• statement;
• birth certificate;
• internal passport (and copy);
• (also with copy);
• a certificate from the registry office stating that there are no obstacles to marriage;
• or the death of a spouse in the event of a remarriage.

Others may be required, subject to local regulations. This point is also better to clarify in advance.

All documents must be translated and the translation certified. To do this, you need to contact a notary and pay a state fee.

Price

The costs are made up of the following items:

1. Preparation of documents;
2. Road (tickets, obtaining a visa if required);
3. Accommodation;
4. Ceremony itself.

Some travel companies are engaged in organizing foreign weddings. A range of services, depending on the country, season and other conditions, can cost from 100 to 600 thousand rubles.

How much time will it take?

When planning a wedding, you need to know that in some countries you will have to spend some time before the ceremony. In some European countries, for example, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, you will have to obtain permission from the authorities. This can take two to six months.

In other countries, such permission is not required. But you need to spend some time there before registering. For example, for Sri Lanka, this period is 4 days, for the Seychelles - 11, and for France - as many as 40.

Is such a marriage valid in the Russian Federation?

If the wedding took place in a consulate or representative office, the marriage is automatically recognized in Russia. If this is not the case, and there is no special agreement between the countries, then additional legalization will be required.

Russia joined the 1961 Hague Convention. This means that a marriage entered into in one of these countries is legalized in a simplified manner. For this, an Apostille stamp is put in the competent state body. Such a body may be a ministry, municipality or district administration, etc. Such a stamp certifies the authenticity of signatures and seals on a document.

If the country in which the ceremony took place has not signed the Hague Convention, consular legalization will be required. That is, the consul of another state certifies the marriage certificate.

Later, in Russia, must be stamped in the passport. To do this, you need to contact the department of the Federal Migration Service with. It is not required to receive a Russian-style certificate. You need to know that the certificate is not always issued immediately. Sometimes it is sent by mail, and you have to wait up to several months.

Russian legislation does not prohibit the registration of a marriage union between Russian citizens and foreign citizens.

However, people often have a question: is a marriage concluded abroad valid on the territory of the Russian Federation?

According to Art. 158 of the Family Code of Russia (FC RF), a marriage registered abroad is recognized as valid on the territory of the Russian Federation, if during its conclusion all the requirements put forward by the legislation of a foreign state were met, and also if there are no circumstances under which entry into a family union is not allowed ( article 14 of the RF IC).

Article 14 of the RF IC. Circumstances preventing marriage

Marriage between:

• persons, of which at least one person is already in another registered marriage;
• close relatives (relatives in a direct ascending and descending line (parents and children, grandfather, grandmother and grandchildren), full and half-blooded (having a common father or mother) brothers and sisters);
  adoptive parents and adopted children;
• persons, of which at least one person has been recognized by the court as incapable due to a mental disorder.

Abroad, two options for the marriage registration ceremony can be organized:

• official registration;
• symbolic ceremony.

The difference between them is that in the first case, the newlyweds will receive an official certificate confirming their marital status, which has legal force on the territory of Russia. In the second case, the bride and groom simply participate in a solemn ceremony organized abroad, but upon arrival in Russia, their marital status remains unchanged.

On the territory of a foreign state, citizens of the Russian Federation can marry only if they fully comply with all the legal requirements of the country in which registration is planned. But, regardless of the conditions of another country, the bride and groom, according to the RF IC, can become spouses if the following circumstances are absent:

• the bride and groom have close family ties;
• one of the future spouses is officially registered in another marriage;
• the bride or groom in a court of law received the status of an incompetent person due to an existing mental disorder;
• one of the spouses is the adoptive parent, and the other is the adopted person.

A citizen of the Russian Federation can officially register his marriage in almost any country in the world.

What documents are needed?

The list of countries where citizens of the Russian Federation can hold an official ceremony is quite large. Each state may put forward its own special requirements for the list of required documents, but, as a rule, the standard package includes:

If one of the future spouses is a citizen of a foreign state, then in order to get married, a citizen of the Russian Federation will need to obtain a fiance/fiance visa or a wedding visa at the embassy of the foreign state where the wedding is planned. A visa allows a citizen or citizen of the Russian Federation to come to the country for the official conclusion of a marriage union.

In addition to the above documents, each foreign state may put forward additional requirements for the list of documents provided. So, for example, in some countries, if the bride was previously married, which was dissolved less than a year ago, she will need to attach a certificate from a medical institution that she is not pregnant.

All documents must be translated into the state language of the country where the registration will take place, and preliminarily certified in Russia.

Do I need to obtain permission from the authorities of the country in which I plan to register?

One of the first steps towards entering into a marriage bond in the territory of a foreign state is for the future spouses to obtain permission from the local authorities to conduct the ceremony.

To obtain such a document, the bride and groom apply to the local mayor's office, municipality or other authorized body at the place of planned registration.

In some countries (for example, Cyprus), it is possible to contact the local municipality by phone or send an application for permission to conduct a marriage ceremony by e-mail. To do this, the applicant will need to scan all the necessary documents and send them by e-mail to Cyprus, and upon arrival for a certain number of days, provide their originals.

To obtain a permit from the local authorities to register a marriage, the following documents are required:

• passports;
• birth certificates;
• if there was a marriage in the past, a certificate of its termination.

Besides, future spouses fill out a questionnaire with standard items, including personal data, information about marital status and the conclusion of a future union.

The waiting period for obtaining permission to register a marriage depends on the chosen country. In some cases, it may take up to 6 months to receive a document.

The authorities may refuse marriage to citizens of the Russian Federation if any condition put forward by a foreign state is not met.

Foreign countries, in order to be able to register family relations on their territory, may put forward requirements for the time of residence in the country or the availability of a bank account.

Is such a union recognized in Russia?

An officially registered marriage in another country will be recognized on the territory of the Russian Federation if the marriage certificate is legalized. The legalization procedure is carried out by the state in whose territory the marriage union was concluded.

Legalization of a marriage certificate is required if the relationship was registered in a country with which Russia does not have an agreement on the abolition of any type of legalization.

Legalization can be carried out in two ways:

• by affixing the stamp "Apostille";
• consular legalization.

Apostille of a marriage certificate is possible only if the country in which it was received is a party to the Convention signed in The Hague on 05.10.1961. The Convention abolishes the legalization procedure for all foreign documents concluded in an official manner.

If a foreign state is not a party to the Hague Convention, then legalization of the document will be required. This process is much longer and more difficult. To do this, you will need to certify the document in the bodies of the Ministry of Justice of the country abroad, the bodies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then in the Russian consulate.

Based on international treaties, documents, including marriage certificates, issued by some countries (for example, the Czech Republic, Latvia and others) are recognized in Russia without any legalization, only a notarized translation of the document is required.

The procedure for concluding a marriage union by citizens of the Russian Federation abroad is somewhat more complicated. than in Russia. This is due to certain additional requirements put forward by a foreign state.

If the future spouses nevertheless decided to officially seal the family union outside the Russian Federation, then it is imperative to take care of the legal side of the issue so that in the future the marriage will be officially recognized on the territory of Russia.

The article was prepared by: leading expert of the department for control over the activities of non-profit organizations and control and supervision in the field of advocacy, notaries, state registration of acts of civil statusIvanova Maria Sergeevna

Recently, marriage abroad is a fairly common phenomenon and is a success among Russian citizens. The opportunity to create an unusual wedding, simplify the chores of organizing a further honeymoon trip, and avoid a noisy celebration lead to the fact that it is preferable for future spouses to marry abroad. Moreover, the range of countries chosen by Russians for concluding a marriage union is very extensive - from the azure shores of the Dominican Republic to the Gothic castles of the Czech Republic. However, when choosing a particular country, it is important to remember that certain formalities are observed, especially if the marriage is concluded abroad.

First of all, it should be noted that in the Russian Federation, marriages entered into outside the Russian Federation are recognized as valid subject to the laws of the state in whose territory they were concluded, as well as in the absence of circumstances preventing marriage (Article 158 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation).

Compliance with the legislation of the state in which the marriage was concluded, in this case means compliance with the requirements regarding the form and conditions of marriage, provided for by the legislation of the country in which the marriage is supposed to be concluded. Thus, the need for state registration of marriage is enshrined in the legislation of most developed countries (Belgium, Germany, Holland, China, France, Switzerland, Japan, etc.). In a number of countries, a marriage concluded either by a state body or by the denomination of the spouses is recognized as legal (Great Britain, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Canada, Latvia and some US states). The only possible form of marriage - religious - is established in Israel, Iraq, Iran.

As for the circumstances preventing marriage, they are reflected in Art. 14 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, according to which marriage is not allowed between:

Persons, of which at least one person is already in another registered marriage;

Close relatives (relatives in a direct ascending and descending line (parents and children, grandfather, grandmother and grandchildren), full and half-blooded (having a common father or mother) brothers and sisters);

Adoptive parents and adopted children;

Persons, of whom at least one person has been recognized by the court as incapable due to a mental disorder.

In most countries, the circumstances that prevent marriage are similar to those in Russia, however, before choosing a particular country for marriage, you should still ask what requirements for future spouses are established by the legislation of the respective country. Otherwise, when entering the country chosen for marriage, you run the risk of encountering the impossibility or invalidity of marriage in the Russian Federation.

If the future spouses have decided in which country the marriage will take place, it is necessary to think about the place of marriage in the country chosen for this purpose. It is preferable to marry in diplomatic missions or consular offices of the Russian Federation. A marriage entered into in these bodies is equated to a marriage entered into in the registry offices of the Russian Federation and does not require additional legalization.

In the case of a marriage in the competent authority of a foreign state, it must be remembered that the marriage document issued by the specified body will be recognized on the territory of the Russian Federation, subject to its legalization, which is carried out by the state in whose territory the document was executed. if the Russian Federation does not have an agreement with the relevant state on the abolition of the requirement of any type of legalization.

There are two main types of legalization:

1) affixing the stamp "Apostille";

2) consular legalization.

Apostille of a document is applicable only if the state in whose territory the document is executed is a party to the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents, concluded in The Hague on October 5, 1961.

Consular legalizationis necessary if the state from which the document originates is not a party to the 1961 Hague Convention. This is a longer procedure, which includes certification of the document in the bodies of the Ministry of Justice of a foreign state, the bodies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then in the consulate of the country of destination, in this case in Russia. In this case, the document will have legal force only in the territory of the country whose consulate mark is on it.

For Russian citizens, as a rule, the first type of legalization is applied - affixing the stamp "Apostille" in the competent authority of the foreign state in which the marriage is concluded by citizens of the Russian Federation. This is due to the fact that the Russian Federation is a party to this Convention and, accordingly, recognizes documents with an Apostille stamp as official. In the event that the state is not a party to the Hague Convention of 1961, then the document emanating from such a state must go through the procedure of the above-mentioned consular legalization.

The Russian Federation has concluded international treaties with a number of states that abolish the requirement of any type of legalization, including the affixing of an apostille. These include, for example, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and others. Thus, a marriage document issued by a competent authority, for example, the Czech Republic, does not require an apostille to be presented to the Russian competent authorities, despite the fact that the Czech Republic, as well as the Russian Federation, are parties to the 1961 Hague Convention. Only a notarized translation of the said document is required. As for documents submitted to the competent authorities of the Czech Republic, their translation into Czech, in accordance with the requirements of Czech law, must be carried out by a court interpreter of the Czech Republic, information about which is available on the official website of the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic.

Regarding marriage in the Baltic States, it should be noted that the family legislation of these countries is largely similar.

In Latvia, if the persons entering into marriage belong to an Evangelical Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Old Believer, Methodic, Baptist, or Seventh-day Adventist or Followers of Moses (Judaism) churches, and at the same time wish to have the marriage contracted by an authorized minister of their religion hierarchs of the respective denomination, the conclusion of marriage must take place in accordance with the rites adopted within the framework of such a denomination.

Thus, these persons can marry both in the registry office and in a religious institution in the presence of a clergyman in accordance with the rites adopted within the confession to which the spouses belong.

In Estonia, church marriages are legalized, in connection with which a church marriage is equated to a marriage registered in a state institution. Thus, the church, parish and clergy, regardless of denomination, have been granted the right to perform all the actions necessary for officially recognized marriage registration.

In Lithuania civil and ecclesiastical forms of marriage are of equal importance for the state. The choice of one form or another depends solely on the spouses, i.e. Lithuania has an optional form of marriage. There is the possibility of marriage both in civil order (in the registry office) and in the church.

Regarding marriage in Italy, it should be said that if the bride was previously married, at least three hundred days must elapse from the moment of divorce, otherwise this circumstance, according to Italian law, will be an obstacle to marriage.

Thus, when entering into marriage abroad, future spouses should approach this issue not only from the point of view of feelings, but also on the basis of the legal consequences of entering into marriage outside the Russian Federation, in order to avoid problems in the future associated with both the marriage procedure and with the issue of recognition of a marriage document in the Russian Federation.

See Albikov I.R. Some legal aspects of the essence of marriage // Family and housing law. 2012. No. 2. S. 26-28.

See Levushkin A.N. Features of marriage in the Baltic countries // Family and housing law. 2012. No. 3. S. 23-27.