Certificate of No Impediment Waiver (§ 1309 BGB): The Denmark Option

If your partner comes from a country that doesn't issue a certificate of no impediment, the German registry office (Standesamt) requires a waiver from the president of the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht, OLG), a procedure under § 1309 of the German Civil Code (BGB) that often takes 6–12 months in practice. The good news: there is a fully legal alternative. Denmark doesn't require a certificate of no impediment at all, the Danish authority checks your capacity to marry itself, and the marriage is recognized in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Most couples are married within 3–6 weeks.

Why the Standesamt demands a certificate of no impediment (§ 1309 BGB)

Under § 1309 (1) BGB, a foreign partner whose home-country law governs the marriage must generally present the German registry office with a certificate from their home authority. This certificate of no impediment (Ehefähigkeitszeugnis) confirms that nothing under the law of the country of origin prevents the marriage, that the person is of age, unmarried and free to marry. The reason is pragmatic: a German registry office cannot verify on its own whether someone is validly divorced or single under Indian or Brazilian law, so that check is delegated to the home country.

Without the certificate, the registry office may not perform the marriage, unless the OLG president grants a waiver under § 1309 (2) BGB. And that is exactly where a long, nerve-racking procedure begins for many binational couples.

Countries that don't issue a certificate of no impediment

The certificate is a concept known mainly in European countries with central civil-status registers. In many legal systems there is simply no authority that could issue such a document. Typical examples:

• USA: there is no central civil-status register, no US authority certifies that someone is "free to marry".
• India: the document doesn't exist in Indian law.
• Brazil: no certificate of no impediment within the meaning of § 1309 BGB exists there either.
• Many African countries: the concept is largely unknown to local civil-status law.

If your partner comes from one of these countries, there is no way around the OLG waiver in Germany. What the alternative looks like for binational couples in Denmark is covered below.

How the OLG waiver procedure works

1. Registering at the Standesamt: You don't apply to the OLG directly, but through the registry office where you register your intended marriage. That's where you submit all documents.
2. Preliminary check and forwarding: The registry office pre-checks the documents and forwards the application, with its assessment, to the competent OLG.
3. Substantive review: The OLG examines, under the home country's law, whether impediments to the marriage exist, for example a still-existing marriage or a foreign divorce not recognized in Germany. It relies on proofs of single status, sworn declarations and, in some cases, document verification through German diplomatic missions.
4. Requests for additional documents: If documents are missing or outdated, the OLG asks for more, and every round costs weeks to months.
5. Decision: If the waiver is granted, it is usually valid for six months. If you don't marry within that period, the procedure starts over.

Duration and costs: what to expect

How long the procedure takes depends heavily on the OLG district and the country of origin. Simple cases can move faster, but in practice 6–12 months is often realistic, especially when the OLG orders a document verification abroad. That verification, carried out via lawyers of trust working with the German embassies, can take several months on its own.

The costs are based on the value of the proceedings and vary from case to case; on top come additional expenses for fresh certificates, apostilles, certified translations and, where required, the document verification. There are no reliable flat figures, ask your registry office for an estimate for your specific case.

Frequent requests for additional documents

• proofs of single or marital status that are older than six months
• missing apostille or legalization on foreign certificates
• translations not produced by sworn translators
• foreign divorce decrees without a certificate of finality, or without the separate recognition procedure that Germany sometimes requires
• inconsistent name spellings across passport, birth certificate and other documents

The legal alternative: Denmark requires no certificate of no impediment

Denmark has no equivalent of the § 1309 BGB requirement. The competent authority, the Familieretshuset (Agency of Family Law, AFL), checks your capacity to marry directly from your documents: passport, proof of marital status and, for divorced partners, the final divorce decree. Our document checklist for getting married in Denmark shows exactly what you need.

The practical difference is enormous: with a complete application, the AFL review is usually finished within a few working days of payment being received (as of July 2026). The real bottleneck after that is the ceremony date at the municipality. In total, it usually takes 3–6 weeks from enquiry to wedding day. The AFL fee is DKK 2,100 (approx. €281). And the Danish marriage is recognized in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and all EU countries, read more in our guide to getting married without a certificate of no impediment.