Before the marriage ceremony, an examination of impediments to marriage must be carried out. This ensures that no impediments referred to in the Finnish Marriage Act exist for the marriage. At the same time, you must notify the surname you have chosen.
You should submit your application for an examination of impediments in good time before the day on which you plan to marry. The examination of impediments to marriage takes at least seven days. If one of you is a foreigner, you should allow several weeks for the examination of impediments. The certificate is valid for four months after the date of issue.
The examination of impediments uses data from the Population Information System. If the Population Information System does not contain information on your or your spouse’s marital status, you must obtain and submit a marital status certificate issued by an authority of your home country. In some cases, the marital status certificate must be legalised.
The marital status certificate is accepted in Finnish, Swedish and English. If necessary, it must be translated into one of these languages. A translation made by an authorised translator in Finland does not have to be legalised. A translation made abroad must be legalised, unless it has been made by a translator who is qualified for the task under legislation of an EU Member State. A marital status certificate obtained from an EU Member State does not have to be translated, if a standard form pursuant to an EU regulation is attached to it.
- Both fiancé(e)s foreigners
If neither of you is a Finnish citizen and neither of you has a place of domicile in Finland, you must submit both a marital status certificate and a certificate obtained from the authorities of your respective home countries that you may contract this marriage in Finland.
If you are getting married abroad, you can ask the local register office to give you a certificate that certifies that according to Finnish law there is no impediment to contract the marriage.
