How to Get Married Legally Online?
Legal-binding, Official & International Weddings
Since the coronavirus pandemic hit, a huge number of couples around the world have been registering their virtual weddings online. This kind of “Virtual Marriage” or “Zoom Wedding” is an official marriage registered under the marriage laws of the United States. Most importantly, getting married online has no limitation on your geographic location, sexuality, religion or nationality, making it highly popular for wedding couples living anywhere in the world. Read on to learn more about how to get married online instantly and its requirements for different nationals.
What is Online Virtual Wedding?
An online wedding actually means a wedding held virtually through online means. The wedding couples will go through a web-conference wedding ceremony (such as Zoom), which will be officiated by a competent authority to ensure every requirement of the marriage has been met. Most importantly, there is no need for the marrying parties to be in the same physical location when attending the online weddings. In other words, the option of online wedding has provided wedding couples great flexibility in registering their marriages with remote appearance during the coronavirus pandemic. For example, in a situation that one marriage party lives in the UK and the other party resides in the Philippines, they are still eligible for getting married remotely through an online wedding hosted by an officiant staying in the USA. Further explanations can be found at how online wedding ceremony is done.
Before the pandemic, people do not think online marriages are feasible because it lacks of personal touch and authentic feelings. True, human touch is irreplaceable and it’s hardly to believe a typical wedding can be completed online. However, the coronavirus pandemic has really changed how we live our lives. As we all know, there have been countless weddings which were forced to postpone or even cancelled due to the travel restrictions, shut-down of venues as well as prohibition of large gatherings etc. All these have made planning a traditional wedding extremely difficult and naturally getting married online has become an option for the desperate wedding couples. No one could have predicted the current popularity of online marriages before the pandemic.
In addition to the great certainty in planning a virtual wedding, we have found that there are also two important reasons for the great popularity of getting wedded online:
Low-cost Wedding
Getting married online is highly affordable. According to some research, the average cost of a traditional wedding in 2021 was USD22,500 and not every couple would like to spend such a sum on a single event, whereas the costs of an online virtual marriage could be as low as under USD1,000. The simplicity and low-cost nature of getting married online help minimise the wedding-stress and enable couples to focus on their own life goals and plans.
Fast & Simple Marriage
There are many couples who urgently need a legal marriage in order to pursue their life plans. They do not really need a fancy ceremony but only a simple and lawful marriage for paperwork purposes. For example, we had some couples who were living apart in different countries. In order to live their lives together, they were in urgent need of a legal marriage which is usually a pre-requisite for their further application for a spouse visa / family visa. There have been many couples who have made the best use of the simplicity of organising a virtual wedding backed by laws in this regard.
Learn more about online marriages at 8 things you must know before getting married online virtually.
Where Did Online Wedding Come From?
Yes, your guess is right, it all started with COVID-19! Due to the pandemic, some states of the USA began to make virtual wedding ceremonies legal in 2020. Surprisingly, people really liked it and many other states have followed suit to allow the option of getting married online. It is getting even more popular now!
Is Online Wedding Really Legal?
Yes, online wedding is legal if all legally required steps are done. To make each online wedding legal, we must complete 3 important steps to complete the registration of an online marriage:
(1) An official marriage license has been issued to the wedding couple
(2) A valid wedding ceremony has taken place in accordance with the legal requirements
(3) The marriage has been registered with the authorities for proper records
No worries, our team will help you handle the application paperwork and guide you to complete all the required steps of making your virtual wedding legal. In the wedding ceremony, it requires an authorised officiant and the presence of 2 witnesses over the age of 18. The wedding couples will affirm their willingness to enter into a marriage commitment. Please see more details about the legality of online weddings at Using Marriage Certificate of Online Wedding for Legal and Immigration Purpose.
After the online wedding ceremony, you will receive one digital and one hardcopy of the Marriage Certificate as your proof of the marriage. To facilitate the use of the US Marriage Certificate in another country, it is possible to go through an additional authentication which is called Apostille. As governed by an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), the Apostille Convention specifies the modalities through which an official seal on a document, issued in one contracting country / party, can be certified for legal purposes in all the other contracting countries / parties.
If you are not staying in the USA, we are able to apply for the apostille certification on your marriage certificate and send it to your provided address.
Can You Get Married Online?
The good news is that the requirements of an online virtual marriage are minimal. Most importantly, wedding couples of any nationalities or religions are eligible for getting married online. It is also LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) friendly!
The first requirement is that the marrying couple must be at least 18 years old. To apply for a Marriage License, their government-issued identity documents will be required and their identities will also be verified during the marriage ceremony. There will be no location restrictions and the marrying parties can be physically staying in anywhere in the world throughout the wedding process (a couple can be in separate physical locations too).
A little reminder is that if a divorce has been granted within the last 60 days, it is necessary to wait until this 60-day period is lapsed before submitting the application. This helps ensure that the divorce has become finalised so that there is no any legal hindrance for the marriage. Also, similar to other marriage laws, the marrying parties related to each other within a certain degree of consanguinity are not allowed to get married.
Want to know more about the procedure and exact requirements about your situation? Please see how-it-works or just leave your questions at Contact. We provide free consultation and will revert to you with detailed answers in 24 hours!
“We got stuck by covid and had to marry online. Thank you very much for helping us. “
Rose-Ann & Marco
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Debbie & Dave
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Ranel & Kitty
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