Updated 2024
If you or your partner have been married previously - before you get married again - you are required to provide your celebrant with evidence of the termination of your previous marriage.
There are a few different ways a marriage can end, but if your previous marriage ended in divorce, the evidence will be your divorce certificate.
This is still the case if you were married overseas. Certificates in a foreign language must be translated into English by an authorised interpreter/translation service.
It is important to disclose this information accurately on your Notice of Intended Marriage Form, Page one of the Notice of Intended Marriage Form outlines that "it is a criminal offence for a person to give the Notice to an Authorised Celebrant or to sign it if that person knows the Notice contains a false statement or an error or is defective (Section 104, Marriage Act)." It is also an offence to be legally married to more than one person at the same time. So if you unsure if your previous marriage ceremony was "legal", it is important to find out and make sure you were never married in the first place, or are now officially divorced.
If you do not have a divorce certificate in your files, here is the information you will need to gather the required evidence (if you were divorced in Australia):
How do I prove I'm divorced? From the Federal Circuit Court (FCC) of Australia:
Please note that the following information is general in nature and not legal advice. A celebrant can let you know what evidence is required to get married again, but cannot provide legal advice or assist you with the process of a divorce.
The FCC can only provide proof of divorce if your divorce has been granted and finalised.
A divorce is finalised one month and one day after it is granted unless there are special circumstances and a court order is made to bring the finalisation date forward.
Once your divorce is finalised you can print a digital divorce order from the Commonwealth Courts Portal on the next working day.
Note: Divorce orders from 13/2/2010 are digital orders with an electronic seal and signature.
Digital divorce orders can be emailed to your marriage celebrant, as evidence of your previous marriage ending.
The FCC website has a live chat function to assist you in determining whether your divorce has been finalised.
The process of requesting proof of divorce records is different depending on where and when your divorce was granted.
To obtain further information about your specific circumstances.
I need to apply for a divorce from my previous partner, before I can get married again:
If you are wanting to marry your current partner, it might seem easy prove that your marriage to your ex has 'broken down irreparably' - however there are a few other things you need to consider:
You will need to have been separated from your ex for at least 12 months and 1 day. If you were living in the same house as them during any of this time, you will need to provide additional evidence that you were, in fact, seperated (more information linked).
If you were married for less than two years, you will need to file a counselling certificate (more info linked).
After reading the information on the FCC website, if you are still unsure if you are eligible to get divorced, you should seek legal advice.
Again your celebrant cannot provide you with legal advice or help you with the process of getting divorced.
However, you can still submit a Notice of Intended Marriage to your celebrant while you are un the process of getting divorced. You will just need to select "divorce pending" under 'Conjugal status'.
If you are eligible, you can file an application by yourself (or with your ex), online, through the FCC website.
You may not need to attend Court. Court attendance is only required if you have filed a sole application and there is a child of the marriage aged under 18 years at the time of filing or you have indicated that you wish to attend.
Once the divorce is granted it will be finalised one month and one day later unless a special order is made by the court to shorten that time.
Helpful Hint - You can log into the portal and choose to receive a notification email to tell you when your divorce has been granted. It will advise you that it will be finalised in one month and one working day later and give you instructions on how to print your divorce order. For information on how to do this see Electing to receive email notification for any open applications on the How do I navigate through the Portal page.
Your divorce order will be available for you to download from the Commonwealth Courts Portal the next working day after the order has become final.
Go to www.comcourts.gov.au to log in.
Go to the Available Files tab then select the All tab and choose your file.
Under the Additional options for this file heading select List of orders.
Select View Orders in the right hand column in the row next to the Hearing divorce event type to open the digital order.
Print. It is recommended that you print the divorce order double sided and in colour.
The divorce order has an electronic seal and signature and is an original order. This divorce order is the only official and original record the court issues and is evidence that a divorce order has been made.
This electronic document can be emailed to your celebrant as evidence of your previous marriage ending. For more information visit: FCC How do I apply for a Divorce?
The information in this blog post is not legal advice, and was sourced directly from: List of Divorce How do I's - FCC