Marrying in Denmark with a partner from Kosovo, Albania or Serbia

Yes, you can marry in Denmark with a partner from Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia or Montenegro. With a biometric passport, nationals of all six countries travel visa-free, Kosovars since 1 January 2024. The biggest difference lies in the documents: from Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina they need an apostille for Familieretshuset, from Serbia, North Macedonia and Montenegro they do not.

This guide is for couples where one of you lives in Germany, Austria or Switzerland and the other comes from one of the six Western Balkan countries, whether they already live with you or are still in their home country. The rules for every nationality are on our page rules by country of origin, and all documents in our guide documents for your wedding in Denmark.

The six countries at a glance

Familieretshuset, the Danish Agency of Family Law, accepts documents from most European countries without authentication. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, however, are expressly on its list of exceptions (Familieretshuset: Documentation requirements). All six states are parties to the Hague Apostille Convention, so for these three an apostille is enough, and you do not need legalisation by the Danish embassy.

The entry rules come from the visa list of the German Federal Foreign Office (as of 3 June 2026), and the competent authorities for the apostille from what the countries have notified to the Hague Conference (Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina). The list for all countries is in our guide apostille or legalisation.

Entry: visa-free, but with proof of stay

For Kosovo, under Regulation (EU) 2023/850, visa-free travel applies from the start of the ETIAS travel authorisation system or from 1 January 2024, whichever came first; ETIAS was not yet running at that time, so it has applied since 1 January 2024. For all six countries, visa-free travel applies only with a biometric passport and for at most 90 days in any 180-day period. Without a biometric passport your partner needs a Schengen visa, see our guide marrying on a Schengen visa.

Denmark only marries people who are legally in the country on the wedding day, and Familieretshuset wants to see proof of this as early as the application (Familieretshuset: Documentation of legal stay):

• Your partner lives in Germany, Austria or Switzerland with a residence permit: the residence permit of a Schengen state is enough as proof, front and back. You then do not need EES printouts or tickets.
• Your partner travels visa-free from the home country: since 10 April 2026 you print the data page and the result page of the EES calculator and add plane tickets or boarding passes. If you had not yet been in the Schengen area before applying, you calculate the planned stay in the calculator.
• Fiktionsbescheinigung (provisional certificate), expired permit, asylum procedure: this is where it gets tricky. Which papers count is explained in our guide residence papers for the wedding in Denmark.

The passport must be valid for at least three months beyond the stay, have two empty pages and have been issued within the last ten years. Familieretshuset's approval is valid for at most four months and ends earlier if the passport or residence permit expires before then. How the EES proof works step by step is shown in our guide EES proof for the wedding. Whether an ETIAS authorisation is also needed before travelling, check on the official EU site travel-europe.europa.eu; when we went to press on 6 November 2026, we had no binding start date.

Which documents does Familieretshuset really need?

Fewer than many expect. Each of you uploads photos of all passport pages and confirms in the application, with a signature under criminal liability, that you are unmarried. Familieretshuset does not ask for your own birth certificates, and asks for a certificate of marital status only in individual cases. Documents from the Western Balkans are added only if your case needs them:

Kosovo: documents from the central register

Since 18 February 2013, Kosovo has kept a central civil status register. German courts and registry offices require an extract from it as proof of marital status (Extract of the Central Register of Civil Status), issued by the authority at home or by a Kosovar consulate (OLG Dresden, country notes on Kosovo). For Familieretshuset you need it only if it asks for it. For civil status documents, the apostille is issued by the Civil Registration Agency at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia: multilingual extracts

Like Germany, Austria and Switzerland, these four states are parties to CIEC Convention No. 16 on multilingual extracts from civil status records; Denmark is not. German registry offices require precisely this international, multilingual extract from Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. For Familieretshuset the rule is: Serbian, North Macedonian and Montenegrin documents need no apostille, Bosnian ones do. Whether Familieretshuset accepts a multilingual extract without a translation is not stated on its pages; plan for the translation or ask beforehand.

Translation: Albanian, Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian

Familieretshuset accepts documents in Danish, English or German. Anything else you have translated into German, English or Danish by an authorised translator before you apply, including the text of the apostille. In Germany these are publicly appointed or sworn translators, in Austria generally sworn and court-certified interpreters. More in our guide certified translation of wedding documents.

• Names exactly as in the passport: Cyrillic documents from Serbia, North Macedonia or Republika Srpska can be transcribed in different ways. Ask the translator to use the spelling from the passport.
• Keep special characters: ë and ç in Albanian, and č, ć, š, ž and đ in Serbian and Bosnian, are part of the name. If they are missing in a translation, the name no longer matches the passport.
• Order: first the apostille, then the translation of the document and the apostille together.

Married before: divorced at home or where you live?

If your partner was married before, the Danish marriage guidance requires a copy of the divorce decision, proof that it is final and a translation with all notes (Vejledning om behandling af ægteskabssager, section 2.5.2.3.1). In Serbian, Bosnian or Montenegrin judgments this note is usually called the finality clause (klauzula pravosnažnosti). What happens next depends on where the divorce took place.

• Divorced in the home country: the judgment with the note of finality, with an apostille for Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia, plus the translation. For Germany, recognition by the state justice administration under § 107 FamFG is also needed, unless both former spouses were nationals of the country where the divorce took place.
• Divorced in Germany, Austria or Switzerland: Familieretshuset accepts the judgment with the note of finality without an apostille. The home country often sees it differently, see the note below.

What else applies to a second marriage is in our guide divorced: a second wedding in Denmark.

After the wedding: registering the marriage in the home country

Straight after the ceremony you receive two international marriage certificates in five languages (Danish, German, English, French, Spanish), see international marriage certificate. For the marriage to appear in the register of the home country as well, for example for a passport in a new name or for inheritance matters, you have it registered through the consulate or the registry office in the home country. Each country decides for itself which documents it requires; ask beforehand whether it needs the Danish marriage certificate with an apostille. Only the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Udenrigsministeriet) issues that apostille, for DKK 250 per document (um.dk). We arrange it as an add-on for €149.99, see apostille on the Danish marriage certificate. How other states treat a Danish marriage is collected in our guide recognition of a Danish marriage worldwide.

Recognition in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

• Germany: as a rule, the Danish marriage is valid without any further procedure, and the marriage certificate needs no apostille (EU Regulation 2016/1191). Registering it afterwards at the registry office (Nachbeurkundung) is voluntary. If the registry office wants to see your partner's documents: Kosovar civil status documents with legalisation, documents from Serbia, Bosnia, North Macedonia and Montenegro with an apostille (OLG Dresden). Details in our guide recognition in Germany.
• Austria: you must report the marriage to the Central Civil Status Register (ZPR); this is mandatory. Because Austria objected to Kosovo's accession to the Apostille Convention, ask the authority which authentication it wants for Kosovar documents. More in our guide recognition in Austria.
• Switzerland: recognition is not automatic. You report the marriage through the Regional Consular Centre in Stockholm, which forwards it to the canton and to the Infostar civil status register; this takes at least two months, and you submit the declaration on your name within six months. Switzerland did not object to Kosovo's accession. More in our guide recognition in Switzerland.

If your partner still lives in the home country, the application for family reunification with a visa follows after the wedding; the marriage alone gives no right of residence. The process is explained in our guide family reunification after the wedding, and the comparison with a marriage visa in our guide marriage visa or wedding in Denmark.

Step by step

1. Clarify your situation: is the passport biometric and valid for long enough? Residence permit or visa-free travel? Earlier marriages? Our free eligibility check shows which documents your case needs.
2. Get the documents: only the ones you need, as recent as possible.
3. Apostille: only for documents from Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
4. Translation: document and apostille into German, English or Danish.
5. Application to Familieretshuset: the fee is DKK 2,100 (about €281) and is not refunded. Familieretshuset usually decides complete applications within 5 working days; after a request for further documents it is currently working on cases from August 2026 (processing times, as of 6 November 2026). The approval (prøvelsesattest) is valid for at most 4 months.
6. Ceremony: it takes 15 to 20 minutes. You need two witnesses, and many municipalities provide them on weekdays.
7. Afterwards: registration in the home country, with a Danish apostille if needed, and the steps in Germany, Austria or Switzerland.

With every application, Familieretshuset also checks whether the relationship is genuine; what it wants to see is in our guide sham marriage check. If you would rather not check the documents alone: in the Complete package for €649.99, Familieretshuset's fee included, we check every scan before submission and file the application for you. The Essential package for €249.99 includes the document list, instructions and WhatsApp support. All services are on our pricing page.