Marriage registration

The marriage registration is a personal act, which cannot be carried out by proxy by another person. Only the marriage concluded at the state bodies in charge of registering civil status records gives rise to the rights and obligations of the spouses provided for by law.

The provision of the service requires physical presence, in two stages, before the competent authority, of the persons wishing to register a marriage: when submitting the marriage declaration and when registering the marriage record. When the marriage is registered, the marriage record is drawn up, which must be signed compulsorily by the declarants and authenticated by the person responsible for registering a marriage, applying the seal. The marriage certificate is issued to the spouses based on the marriage record.

The territorial jurisdiction for marriage registration is determined by the domicile (proven by registration at the domicile) of one of the declarants or their parents.

In the absence of domicile registration, the registration of domicile (temporary residence), the last place of domicile, or the place of location is taken into account. In order to conclude a marriage, the man and woman who are getting married must give their mutual, unambiguous consent, expressed personally and unconditionally, and must have reached the marriageable age. Persons who wish to marry are obliged to inform each other of their state of health. 

The minimum marriageable age is 18. 

For well-founded reasons, marriage may be authorized with a reduction of the age of marriage, but not by more than two years. The reduction of the marriageable age shall be authorized by the local authority within whose territorial jurisdiction the persons wishing to marry are domiciled, based on their application and the consent of the minor's parents. 

The conclusion of marriage shall take place in the presence of the persons getting married, after the expiry of a period of at least one month from the date on which they submit the marriage declaration. 

The maximum time limit set for the conclusion of marriage shall not exceed two months from the date of submission of the marriage declaration. 

If there are well-founded reasons (due to the impossibility of one of the declarants to be on the territory of the Republic of Moldova during the legal period for registering the marriage), the head of the civil status service may, at the request of the persons wishing to marry, shorten the period indicated in paragraph (1), and in exceptional cases (danger to life, pregnancy, childbirth, etc.), the marriage may be concluded even on the day of submission of the declaration.

At the wish of the future spouses, the marriage is officiated solemnly.

Foreign citizens, residing outside the territory of the Republic of Moldova, shall conclude the marriage on the territory of the Republic of Moldova according to the legislation of the Republic of Moldova if they are entitled to conclude the marriage according to the legislation of the state of which they are citizens.

In this regard, marriage with a foreign citizen or between foreign citizens shall be concluded only if, in addition to the documents provided for in Article 34 of this law, the persons getting married shall submit evidence, issued by the competent authorities of the states of whose citizens they are, that the substantive conditions required by the legislation of the Republic of Moldova for the conclusion of marriage are fulfilled. It may be submitted, as appropriate:

1. Certificate of civil status (contains information on a person's civil status: single, divorced or widowed) or other type of official document issued by foreign authorities attesting the absence of registration of previous uninterrupted marriages in a person's name.
2. Certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage (issued and accepted in the case of the states belonging to the territorial scope of the Convention of the International Commission on Civil Status no. 20 concerning the issue of the certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage, signed in Munich, September 5, 1980: Germany, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, Republic of Moldova). The document issued pursuant to the ICCS Convention no. 20/1980 does not require supralegalization/apostillation nor translation). In other states, documents similar to the certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage are called "Customary certificate", "Permission to marry", etc.).
3. Affidavit of civil status and lack of impediments to marriage, in cases where the competent authorities of foreign states do not issue certificates of civil status or certificates of legal capacity to contract a marriage (or for the most part these are the Arab countries, which issue a document "Family Composition/Registration". In the case of citizens of these countries, an Affidavit is accepted, stating that the person is not married and that the substantive conditions required by the legislation of the Republic of Moldova for the conclusion of marriage are fulfilled.

The document issued abroad requires supralegalization or apostillation (for countries party to the 1961 Hague Convention abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents) and translation, unless otherwise provided for by a treaty/ convention/ agreement to which the Republic of Moldova is a party.  

At the conclusion of marriage between foreign citizens or between them and citizens of the Republic of Moldova, if at least one of them does not know the language in which the marriage ceremony takes place, as well as in the case where one or both of the persons getting married are deaf and dumb, the services of an interpreter shall be used. 

Marriage to a convicted or arrested person 

The marriage to a convicted or arrested person shall be performed by the civil status service within the territorial radius of the penitentiary or the criminal prosecution isolation facility, on the premises of the institution in question. The date, time and place of the marriage shall be coordinated in advance with the penitentiary administration and the prosecutor conducting or, as the case may be, prosecuting the case.

In order to complete the marriage declaration, to the convicted or arrested person itis made available the appropriate form. The accuracy of the data entered in the declaration is confirmed by the head of the institution concerned, who also authenticates the declarant's signature.

If the person who marries the convicted or arrested person is unable to come in person to make the marriage declaration, he or she may send the declaration form, filled in under the heading "He" or "She" and authenticated at the civil status registry office of the place of residence, to the future spouse by post, and the convicted or arrested person completes the declaration with personal data and sends it to the civil status registry office within the territorial radius of which the penitentiary or the criminal prosecution isolation facility is located. 

Marriage to a person serving an administrative punishment will be registered after the expiry of the term of the imposed sanction. 

Once the marriage has been concluded, an entry concerning the civil status of the convicted or arrested person shall be entered in his or her personal file, indicating the surname and forename of the other spouse and the date of the conclusion of marriage.

Concluding a marriage on the basis of a court judgment 

The registration of marriage on the basis of a court judgment concerns the situation of officiating the marriage at the civil status service, in the established manner, between two persons who were in a consensual marriage relationship in the period up to July 8, 1944, one of whom died or was reported missing during the war. In this case, the marriage is deemed to have been valid from the date mentioned by the persons concerned in the marriage declaration.

The marriage is registered in the presence of the person concerned and only based on a court judgment establishing the existence of consensual relations between the interested persons.

The registration of marriage on the basis of a court judgment also covers the situation where a marriage record has been drawn up on the basis of a court judgment on the establishment of the registration of the fact of marriage (issued in the event of earlier registration of the record and attestation of the absence of the civil status record in the archives).

Pre-scheduling for requesting services in the territorial subdivisions of the PSA is available here: https://programare.asp.gov.md/qwebbook/index.jsp?lang=ro