Getting Married in Sweden as a Foreigner
You do not need to live here, the paperwork is free, and the ceremony itself can be over in ten minutes on a frozen lake if that is what you want. I photograph weddings and elopements across Sweden, most of them up in the Arctic north, and couples ask me the same questions before they book. Here are the answers, start to finish.
Yes. You can marry in Sweden whether or not you live here, and whether or not either of you is a Swedish citizen. There is no residency requirement and no minimum stay. The one thing you both clear first is a check with the Swedish Tax Agency called hindersprövning, which confirms nothing stands in the way of the marriage.
Two things. The hindersprövning through the Swedish Tax Agency, Skatteverket, and an authorised officiant, a vigselförrättare, to perform the ceremony with two witnesses present. That is the whole legal apparatus. Everything else, the place, the season, the guest list or the lack of one, is yours.
If you are not registered in the Swedish population register, which most foreign couples are not, you send Skatteverket a passport or ID and a marital status certificate from an authority in your own country, showing you are free to marry and issued within the last four months. If either of you has been married before, add the divorce decree or the death certificate. It all goes on form SKV 7880.
The hindersprövning is free. Once Skatteverket approves it they send you two things: a certificate of no impediment to marriage, and a wedding certificate for your officiant. The certificate is valid for four months and cannot be extended, so do not apply too far ahead. If four months pass without a wedding, you apply again.
Skatteverket usually picks up a case within about a week, but give the whole thing a few weeks, and longer if your documents have to travel or be translated. Have the paperwork moving a couple of months out, then leave it alone.
No. You do not need to be resident, registered, or a citizen. You can fly in, marry, and fly out, which is what a lot of the couples I photograph up in Lapland do.
Most foreign couples marry in a civil ceremony, performed by an authorised officiant and as short or as full as you like. Religious ceremonies are also binding when they are held within a faith community the state has authorised to marry people. Either way you need two witnesses, and either way it can be conducted in English.
The north, Swedish Lapland, is snow, frozen forest, the ICEHOTEL and the northern lights, and it is what pulls most couples here. The Stockholm archipelago and the south are gentler and simpler to reach. I have put the seasons, the travel and the best bases in my guide to getting married in Sweden.
Your officiant completes the wedding certificate and returns it to Skatteverket, who register the marriage. You are married from the moment of the ceremony; the paperwork only records it. Ask for a copy of the marriage certificate before you leave.
To have the marriage recognised in your own country you will usually need the certificate, and, depending on where you are from, an apostille and a translation. In Sweden a notarius publicus issues the apostille. Check what your own authorities require before you fly home, not after.
Sweden has had full marriage equality since 2009. The process is identical for everyone.
Skatteverket’s consideration of impediments is the gatekeeper: apply with your identity documents and proof you are free to marry, allow several weeks for processing if documents come from abroad, and the certificate you receive is valid for four months. Book the officiant once it is in hand.
Anywhere your officiant agrees to stand. Civil ceremonies run through officiants appointed by the county, many kommuner offer them at the town hall for little or nothing, and outdoor ceremonies on a jetty, in a forest or on a frozen sea are entirely possible when the officiant is willing.
Two, present at the ceremony and over eighteen. They do not need to be Swedish, so a couple travelling alone can bring anyone along, and in practice the photographer has signed more than once.
