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My girlfriend is a UK national and currently she is living in Germany. I am not a EU national, but I can go to Holland on a work visa as I am working for a company from here in my home country.

If I go to Holland, can I marry her when she's in Germany? Going to UK is not at all an option.

Another option was to get married in my home country - but marriage visas take a long time, longer than a year in many cases from my country. So, I am not considering this option either.

Please advise. Is there any other way to achieve the same result? If the above option is possible, what things shall I keep in mind?

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    Come on guys, love is in the air, the guy is asking if he can get married while he is visiting Germany on a tourist visa! since he can enter Germany as a tourist because he holds a NL work visa. I think it is totally on-topic.
    – Nean Der Thal
    Commented Nov 22, 2013 at 17:14
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    @Annoyed Short term you meant 3 months visa I guess. This is business visa and I actually can't work with that visa. Work visa has different procedure and is long term. I was talking about long term visa.
    – user9223
    Commented Nov 22, 2013 at 18:39
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    One reason I am asking all this is that if you plan on getting a long-term visa for the Netherlands, you could see if it's possible to marry there. You would already be a resident, hence eschewing the whole immigration issue, and your girlfriend, being a UK citizen, should have no problem getting there. Once you are married, you have a EU spouse and things should get easier, no matter where you want to live (Netherlands, UK, Germany…).
    – Relaxed
    Commented Nov 22, 2013 at 20:44
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    Still not able to offer a full answer but a quick follow-up: German authorities might require you to be a resident to marry (which means applying for an immigration visa, which as others have noted is beyond the current scope of this website). Usually Germans need an extract from the population register of the town in which they reside (which, again, could mean you need a residence permit and not only a Schengen visa or long-term visa from another country) but the relevant websites are quite elusive about what foreigners need so you should really contact the town administration.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Nov 25, 2013 at 16:41
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    The process could also be longer than the length of time you are allowed to stay in Germany as a visitor (even with a Dutch residence permit, you are not allowed to take up residence in Germany, only to visit for a limited period of time!) so you might need to go back to your home country or at least to the Netherlands at some point. OTOH, I asked around and it seems that since your wife-to-be is a EU citizen, some visa requirements would not apply to you (most importantly, you shouldn't need to prove you know some German). There should be a EU directive about that (sorry no reference).
    – Relaxed
    Commented Nov 25, 2013 at 16:44

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I can only answer about marriage in Germany. One condition is that one of the two is a resident of the area of the Standesamt (registration office) where the marriage is conducted, so you would have to get married where she lives in Germany (a man living at town A and a woman living in town B could choose to get married in A or B, but not elsewhere). The other main condition is that the marriage must meet all legal requirements according to German laws and according to the laws where both are citizens, that is UK law and your country's law.

Your wife to be can contact the Standesamt where she lives, and they can obviously tell her the legal requirements according to German law, and requirements according to UK law, and most likely (unless you come from a very obscure country) they will know the legal requirements of your home country. If things need to be done in your home country, a consulate or embassy will count as your "home country". For example, she will have to visit a UK consulate in Germany because the wedding has to be publicly announced in the UK for 14 days. The Standesamt will also know what you need to do to make the marriage recognised in your home country, and what consequences there will be on citizenship.

Any papers you need to provide will have to be translated to German by a qualified translator.

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