Marriage certificate

A marriage certificate (colloquially marriage lines) is an official statement that two people are married. In most jurisdictions, a marriage certificate is issued by a government official only after the civil registration of the marriage.

In some jurisdictions, especially in the United States, a marriage certificate is the official record that two people have undertaken a marriage ceremony. This includes jurisdictions where marriage licenses do not exist. In other jurisdictions, a marriage license serves a dual purpose of granting permission for a marriage to take place and then endorsing the same document to record the fact that the marriage has been performed.

A marriage certificate may be required for a number of reasons. It may be required as evidence of change of a party's name, on issues of legitimacy of a child, during divorce proceedings, or as part of a genealogical history, besides other purposes.

Though marriage in Australia is regulated under federal law, the registration of marriages takes place under the respective state or territory laws, generally through an agency named "Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages" or similar, and marriage certificates are issued by these agencies. Under Federal law, a certificate is issued at the time of marriage by a celebrant, for forwarding to the state or territory registry. A similar (sometimes cut-down) document is often given to the couple on the day of the marriage, it is generally handwritten. While legally valid as proof of marriage, is not generally acceptable as an official document. However, the state or territory marriage certificate is considered to be an acceptable and secure secondary identity document especially for the purposes of change of name, and needs to be obtained separately for a fee generally some time after the marriage. This document can be verified electronically by the Attorney-general of Australia's Document Verification Service. States and territories sometimes market commemorative marriage certificates, which generally have no official document status.

State and territory issued certificates are on A4 paper and provide: Date and place of marriage, full names, occupations, addresses, marital status (never validly married, divorced, widow/er), birth date & place, age, father's name, mother's maiden name of each the couple, the celebrant, witness names (generally two), the registrar official of the state or territory authority, and the date of registration. The registrar's signature and seal is printed/embossed on the certificate along with a number, and date of issue of certificate.

Marriage certificates are not generally used in Australia, other than to prove change-of-name, and proof of marital status in a divorce hearing. Some visa categories require a certificate (where a partner is to be associated with a primary applicant), however there are similar categories of partner visas that do not.

Since 2018, Australian federal law has recognized same-sex marriages. These marriages are registrable and documented in a conventional way.

A marriage certificate is given to a couple who have married. Until the introduction of electronic registration of marriages in May 2021, copies were made in two registers: one was retained by the church or register office; the other, when the entire register is full, was sent to the superintendent registrar of the registration district. Every quarter, the minister or civil registrar prepared a further copy of all the marriage entries and sent them to the Registrar General.