Notification of Intention to Marry
So you’ve chosen your special date (congratulations!) and you’ve chosen your Celebrant/Officiant and booked your wedding venue, the next step is to lodge your NOIM (Notification of Intention to Marry) form with the HSE.
It will cost you a non-refundable fee of €200 to lodge your NOIM. In addition to providing your own personal details on the form, you will also need to include the names of your two witnesses over the age of 18 and their date of birth, along with the name of your Registered Marriage Solemniser/Celebrant and the name of the organisation they belong to.
How & Where to Lodge Your NOIM
If you live here in Ireland you must book an appointment with your nearest HSE Civil Registration Office to present your identification documents and complete your notification form. Many HSE offices allow you to book this appointment online.
If you live abroad there are procedures in place which allow you to complete your NOIM and lodge it by post to the HSE office most convenient to you. You will also need to book an appointment to see them in person in the weeks or days before your wedding to produce your identification documents. This meeting is called an “immigration interview” and must be booked as soon as possible to ensure that it’s a date most convenient to you.
Note: Irish marriage law states that you must lodge your NOIM at least 3 months ahead of your marriage registration date and not more than 12 months ahead.
If for any unforeseen reason you need to lodge your NOIM less than 3 months before your wedding date, you will be required to obtain a court order to waive the 3 month notification period for a small fee. Provided you have an unforeseen reason why you could not submit your NOIM more than 3 months before your proposed marriage date, your court order will be granted without any fuss. However this process should be used as a last resort only and not as an excuse to delay lodging your NOIM.
Important Note: Your NOIM can be lodged at any office of the HSE and does not need to be the closest to where you live, or closest to your wedding venue. So if the waitlist is very long at your closest HSE office, or it is difficult to find an appointment time which fits your busy schedule, you can lodge your NOIM at any HSE office in the country and find another HSE office which isn’t quite so busy.
Contact details for all HSE offices are listed on the HSE website here:
https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/1/bdm/contactus/registrars-of-births-deaths-and-marriages.html