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Where to form your partnership?

You can have a civil ceremony at one of our registration offices or approved ceremony venues.

Civil Partnerships in Hampshire

To help you arrange your civil partnerships you will need to speak to a Registration Officer
tel 0845 603 5637 call charges
Phone lines open Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm, Saturday 9.30am - 4pm

Forming your partnership outside Hampshire

You can form a civil partnership at any registration office or approved venue of your choice.

Forming a civil partnership abroad

If you wish to form a civil partnership abroad according to the laws of that country you must ensure that you know and follow the regulations. To hold a ceremony in another country there are minimum residency requirements and this time will be built into the overall length of your stay. Most countries will need to see certain documents. See the Foreign and Commonwealth website or contact your local Register Office for further information.

To arrange the date and time of your partnership at...

A Hampshire Registration Office

Telephone 0845 603 5637 call charges
Phone lines open Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm, Saturday 9.30am - 4pm

A Hampshire approved venue

Contact the venue to check availability and agree a date, then contact us on 0845 603 5637 to book the registration staff.

A non-refundable booking fee is payable at the time of the provisional booking of a Hampshire venue to secure your selected date/time. You will be charged a further booking fee if you subsequently change the date or time of your provisional booking. Although a provisional booking can be made well in advance of your proposed ceremony date, you cannot give notice of civil partnership more than 12 months before the date of your ceremony. Once a notice of civil partnership has been given, any change of venue will result in a fresh notice having to be given.

A venue outside Hampshire

You will need to make arrangements with the local registration office and approved venue in the district in which you wish to form your partnership

Cancellation

In the event that a customer needs to cancel a ceremony for which they have already paid, they will need to confirm the cancellation in writing a minimum of three calendar months notice in advance to be eligible for a full refund. Any request for a refund inside this time scale will also require a confirmation of the cancellation in writing and will be subject to the following guidelines :-

• One to three calendar months notice of cancellation –  50% refund

• Less than one calendar month notice of cancellation (or failure to cancel) – NO refund

Before a civil partnership can take place, the law requires that each person gives a notice of civil partnership.

Notice must be given in the district in which you have had residency for the previous 7 full days.

Giving notice

It is a legal requirement for both parties to give notice at least 15 clear days before but no more than one year before a civil partnership formation.

Explanation - What does 15 clear days mean?

If you both live in the same district, you should both attend your local registration office preferably together to give your notices of civil partnership. No one else can do it on your behalf.

If you live in different registration districts then each of you will need to give notice separately in your respective district, ideally within two weeks of each other.

Your notice is publicly displayed for 15 days, after which the schedules can be issued.

Explanation - What are schedules?

A fee of £35 each is payable by cash, card or cheque made to Hampshire County Council

Making an appointment

If you live in Hampshire (not Southampton or Portsmouth)

You will need to contact us, tel 0845 603 5637

Please ensure that you take all the correct documentation with you on the day. If the relevant documents are not produced it may be necessary to re-schedule your appointment.

If you live in Southampton or Portsmouth

• Portsmouth civil partnerships
• Southampton civil partnerships

Foreign Nationals subject to immigration control

Notice of civil partnership must be given to a 'designated' registration office by both partners together, for Hampshire this is Winchester Register Office.

We have a statutory duty to report any civil partnership we suspect has been arranged for the sole purpose of evading statutory immigration controls.

Explanation - What are the Immigration Control rules?

Urgent civil partnerships (Registrar General’s Licence)

In the event of someone who is terminally ill wishing to form a civil partnership, it is possible to do this in a short time scale. Contact your local registration office on tel 0845 603 5637.

Document checklist

• If you have a passport – please bring this with you to your appointment as it is required to prove your identity/nationality.
  Please note if the passport is not in the name you are currently using, you will need other documents to link you to the name on the passport (if an expired passport is being produced as proof of identity/nationality – please check with the register office where notice is to be given whether this will be acceptable)
  
• If you do not have a passport, you will need to produce a full birth certificate (if you are British and supplying your birth certificate, another form of identification is also required with photo ID if possible e.g driving licence).
  Please note, if you were born on or after 1 January 1983, are British and are producing a birth certificate as your form of identity/nationality, you will also need to produce either your mother’s or your father’s birth certificate or passport (if they were married to each other at the time of your birth) or your mother’s birth certificate or passport (if they were not married to each other at the time of your birth) in order to prove your identity/nationality.
  
• If widowed or surviving civil partner: death certificate of late spouse/civil partner
  If you did not register the death you will also need to produce your marriage or civil partnership certificate.
  
• If divorced: decree absolute (original or court stamped copy only) or proof of dissolution of previous civil partnership. The following link for·Her Majesty's Courts Service (HMCS) gives the addresses of the courts from which copy divorce decrees can be obtained, or visit the Directgov website for civil partnership dissolution
  If the name you are currently using is different to that on your Decree Absolute or Civil Partnership dissolution document, please also bring documents to link you to the previous name, e.g. marriage or civil partnership certificate.
  
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• Proof of address (in order of preference)

  
  
  
  
• A recent bank statement or utility bill or council tax bill.
  Or, failing these, driving licence showing current address.
  
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• Change of name

  
  
  
  

• Change of name document (if you have changed your

  name by deed poll or by any other legal means)
  If you are currently using a name that is not shown on any of your paperwork you will also need to provide evidence linking the names
  
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• Consent if under 18 years

  
  
  
  
• If either party to a proposed civil partnership is under the age of 18, consent is legally required before that the civil partnership can go ahead.
  The only exception to this rule is where the young person will be 18 before the schedule becomes due (e.g. they will be 18 within 16 days after giving the notice of civil partnership ), or the young person has been through a civil partnership before and is widowed or surviving civil partner. Consent is still required if the young person has been married before and is divorced or through a civil partnership before which has been dissolved.
  

It is a pre-requisite of taking a notice of civil partnership that we are able to satisfactorily prove your nationality and that you are free to form a partnership. Therefore we must be able to link any documents that you are producing to prove nationality and condition to you in the name you are using on the day you give notice. So for instance if you are producing a birth certificate as proof of nationality and the name you are currently using is different to that shown on the birth certificate, you must produce a document showing how you got from your birth name to your current name, which might be in the form of a marriage certificate, civil partnership certificate or perhaps a change of name deed.

If you are producing a Decree Absolute or Dissolution of Civil Partnership or a Death Certificate for a late spouse, which is in a different name to the name you are currently using, you must again be able to prove the link between the two names.

If you were born after 1983, do not have a passport and are producing a document to prove nationality of a parent, which is in a different name to the one shown on your birth certificate, we will also need to see a linking document (i.e. marriage certificate/civil partnership certificate or change of name deed) to prove the connection. For instance if your mother and father are divorced and your mother is re-married, her passport may well be in her new married name, which will not be the name shown on your birth certificate. So we would need to see the marriage certificate for her second marriage in order to link her to her previous name as shown on your birth certificate.

The Ceremony

Civil Partnerships must normally take place between 8am and 6pm, except for those authorised by a Registrar General’s licence.

After you have given notice of civil partnership, you will receive a pack which will include additional information to help you plan your ceremony. Staff at our registration offices will be happy to discuss any aspect of your ceremony to make sure the day is perfect for you. We will be on hand to guide you through the ceremony so there is no need to worry about a thing!

The Civil Partnership contract is a written one rather than a verbal one, so you can choose to have a simple signing ceremony in front of the Civil Partnership Registrar and two witnesses or a full ceremony with music, readings, and exchanging of personal vows and rings – or indeed anything in between!

Once you have signed the schedule, the witnesses and the Registrar will also sign.  You will then be presented with a commemorative certificate and your official certificate(s) will be sent to you within two working days.

Below is a suggested order of ceremony if you wish to go for that option

Order of Ceremony

• Background music of your choice can be played as your guests are seated
• Entrance of the couple (either together or separately)
• A welcome and introduction
• A reading by one of your guests (optional)
• One or both of the couple is ‘given away’ (optional)
• Declaration that both are free to enter into a Civil Partnership
• Any personal vows or promises (optional)
• The exchange of rings (optional)
• Another reading by one of your guests (optional)
• The Signing of the Schedule
• Announcement that Civil Partnership has now been formed
• Presentation of Commemorative Certificate
• Photographs
• Exit of the couple

Any music, readings or additional vows should be of a non-religious nature, and must be confirmed in advance to ensure their suitability for a civil ceremony.

Important - Please read before choosing your readings.

We have a Suggested Reading Pack 136kb pdf, to give you some ideas.

Costs

Legal preliminary costs

A fee of £35 each is payable for Giving Notice.

Marriage and Civil Partnership ceremony costs

Fees quoted include the cost of one certificate and the non-refundable booking fee. For costs of extra certificates please see below.

• Statutory Ceremony Room in Winchester
  £49
  £49
  £49
  -
  
• Main Ceremony Room in any Registration Office
  £144
  £154
  £214
  £414
  
• Goldings, Wellesley Suite, Basingstoke
  £249
  £309
  £519
  £559
  
• Approved Venue
  £394
  £454
  £519
  £559
  
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• 2014/2015
   
   
   
   
  
• Statutory Ceremony Room in Winchester
  £49
  £49
  £49
  -
  
• Main Ceremony Room in any Registration Office
  £154
  £164
  £224
  £424
  
• Goldings, Wellesley Suite, Basingstoke
  £264
  £324
  £534
  £574
  
• Approved Venue
  £404
  £474
  £534
  £574
  

Basic ceremony

A basic ceremony for limited number of guests is available at Aldershot, Basingstoke and Fareham Registration Offices on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 9.15am or 9.45am for £49.

Marriage Certificate

You will receive one marriage certificate on the day included in the ceremony fee. Additional certificates requested on or before the ceremony day are £4 each and posted to you within one week of the ceremony.

Civil Partnership certificate

There are two types of Civil Partnership certificate, the standard certificate which shows all the details, and the extract which shows everything except the couple's addresses. Certificates of either type requested on or before the ceremony day are £4 each and posted to you within two working days of the ceremony.

If you need additional copy certificates after the day, the cost will be £7 whilst the register is still current, and £10 when the register archived.

Online Payment

Once you have booked your ceremony with Hampshire Registration Service, and given your notice of marriage/civil partnership, you can pay the balance of your ceremony fee online. You will need to input your Ceremony Reference Number which is on the Customer Account Receipt issued with your booking confirmation letter.