As a rule, marriages of foreigners and Ukrainians take place in Ukraine. According to the Institute of Demography of Ukraine, in 2002, residents of Ukraine made 10,000 marriages with foreigners. And already in 2018, more than 14 thousand marriages of Ukrainians with foreigners were registered.

Compared to other countries, the marriage procedure in Ukraine is not complicated and does not require a large number of documents. However, if for ordinary citizens of Ukraine, it is possible to marry even in 24 hours, then it takes a little more time to marry a foreigner, in particular, in order to check all the documents provided by him and his legality of stay in Ukraine.

Therefore, in order to get married in Ukraine, one must submit the following documents to the state registration authorities  at the place of residence or to the public law entities involved in the organization of marriage registration (for example, document services):

From a foreigner:

- foreigner's passport and certified (notarized) translation of the first page of the foreign passport into Ukrainian;
- if the foreigner has a residence permit, he / she is additionally granted a temporary or permanent residence permit in Ukraine with a passport on the issuance of such a certificate (usually, if the foreigners work in the territory of Ukraine, they have a temporary residence permit, which is obtained on the basis of permission to use work of foreigners and stateless persons);
- if the person was already married, then a document confirming the dissolution of the previous marriage, legalized (apostilled) appropriately and certified in the established order with translation of all pages into Ukrainian (for example, for Hong Kong and Macao, only apostille is enough, documents from other regions must undergo legalization).
If foreigners have difficulties in preparing and legalizing all the necessary documents, they can seek help or advice from a law firm, in particular, such advice can be obtained from our company "Ty i pravo" Lenivsky Group.

.

From a resident of Ukraine:

- passport of a citizen of Ukraine (when providing an id-card additionally, an extract from the register about the place of registration is submitted);
- identification code;
- if the person has previously been married, an additional document is provided confirming the termination of the previous marriage or invalidation of the marriage.
Together with the documents, the future spouse completes and submits the application of the established sample.

Then, the verification procedure of the submitted documents takes place by public authorities, particularly by the State Migration Service of Ukraine, regarding the legality of staying of foreigners in Ukraine.

And here pay attention, on November 22, the Ministry of Justice clarified the Rules for state registration of civil status acts in Ukraine for foreigners by order No 3606/5.

In particular, it is determined that the certificate of permanent or temporary residence issued by the state registration authority for civil status documents is checked by the State Migration Service in accordance with the information on invalid documents.

Also, a request for verification of legality of stay in Ukraine is sent to the SMS in case of:

- absence of a permanent or temporary residence permit from a foreigner or a stateless person;

- absence on the last free page of the passport document of the foreigner, the document certifying the stateless person, the marks on obtaining the certificate for permanent residence;

- if the permanent or temporary residence permit of the foreigner or stateless person has been issued by territorial bodies or subdivisions of the SMS in Crimea since February 20, 2014 or in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk regions since March 1, 2014.

The request shall be sent immediately, but no later than the next working day after the date of submission of the application for state registration of marriage by means of telecommunication. The request shall state the date of submission of the application for state registration of marriage and the date of state registration of marriage.

The territorial body of the SMS informs about the results of the verification of legality of stay in Ukraine on the day of receiving the request or no later than the next business day.

If the appointment date is more than 10 calendar days, the results of the check shall be notified no later than 7 calendar days before the date of state registration of the marriage.

Also the foreigner should pay attention to the following features:

- if the passport of the foreigner is issued less than six months before the application for marriage registration, he / she must additionally provide a border crossing certificate from the State Border Service of Ukraine for the last 180 days or provide his / her previous foreign passport;
- if the foreigner is in Ukraine on a short-term type C visa or a temporary residence permit expires less than in a month's, then it is better to submit documents 30 days before its expiry, in the first case or after the extension of the temporary residence permit, in the second case. Otherwise, there will be a situation when the migration authorities will check the documents, the period of legal stay in Ukraine will expire.
The period of such inspection should not exceed 5 days, however, in practice, due to the overwork, this period is increased by at least 14 days.

After receiving a reply from the SMS of Ukraine, the marriage can be registered during the 24 hours stipulated by the Ukrainian legislation.