Legal requirements – Civil Partnership (what the law requires)

Before a civil partnership can take place, you (the couple) must give formal notice of your intention to enter into a civil partnership. This is a legal requirement, without which it is not possible for a civil partnership to take place. If you are a Hampshire resident you are able to give notice at any Hampshire Register Office unless you are subject to immigration control, in which case you will need to contact the Hampshire Register Office in Winchester. In order to give a notice in the Hampshire district, you must have lived here for at least seven full (24-hour) days immediately prior to giving that notice. If you are setting up a residency in Hampshire (because you normally live abroad for instance) you must give the notice immediately after the residency period has been completed, and before you return home. It does not matter if you move from the area after you have given notice.

How do I make an appointment to give notice?

You will need to telephone the Hampshire Registration Service of your choice to make an appointment at the office of your choice to give notice of civil partnership. Please ensure that you take all the correct documentation with you to the appointment. If the relevant documents are not produced, it may be necessary to re-schedule your appointment. Below is a checklist of the documents that you will need to take with you to the appointment.

• Identity/nationality:
  

  current passport and/or full birth certificate (if you supply your birth certificate, another form of identification is also required with photo ID if possible e.g driving licence). If you were born after January 1st 1983 and you are producing a birth certificate as your form of identity, you will also need to produce your mother’s or 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 nationality. This does not apply if you are supplying a passport as proof of identity because a passport automatically proves your nationality.

• Marital status:
  

  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 General Register Office Website for civil partnership dissolution.
  
  If widowed: death certificate of late spouse (if you did not register the death you may also need to produce your marriage or civil partnership certificate)

• Change of name:
  

  Change of name document ( if you have changed your name by deed poll or by any other legal means)

• Proof of address:
  

  Current council tax bill/driving licence/or a recent bank statement/utility bill

• Consent if under 18 years:
  

  Consent form [if under 18 years] (unless widow/widower or unless age of 18 will be reached by the time the schedule is due). Please contact the Hampshire Registration Service for further advice.

Additional information - please read

• You will both need to pay a statutory fee for the notice of civil partnership.

• Notices of civil partnership must be given in person to a registration officer by you and your partner. No one else can do so on your behalf. If you both live in the Hampshire district (excluding Southampton and Portsmouth), where possible you should attend together to give your notices.

• Once you have both given notice, you must wait at least 15 clear statutory waiting days before the civil partnership can take place. “Statutory waiting days” are the 15 consecutive days between the giving of the notice and the issue of the schedule.  So a person giving notice on the 2^nd January, would then have to wait 15 clear days i.e. from the 3^rd to the 17^th, before the schedule was issued on the 18^th, which would also be the first day that that person was able to legally form a civil partnership.

• The schedule is the legal document which allows your civil partnership to take place and is produced 15 clear statutory waiting days after notice is given. It is valid for 12 months from the date that you gave the notice. The schedule will be produced by the register office in the district in which the formation ceremony is to take place, regardless of whether or not this is within Hampshire or in another county.

• If you are forming a civil partnership outside the Hampshire district, you will need to contact the relevant district Register Office for further advice.

• Although a provisional booking can be made well in advance of your proposed ceremony date, you are unable to give notice more than 12 months before the date of your civil partnership. You are advised that once a notice has been given any change of venue will result in a fresh notice having to be given.

Urgent civil partnership (Registrar General’s Licence)

In the event of someone who is terminally ill wishing to form a civil partnership, there are procedures in place to do this within a very short time scale.  Please contact the Hampshire Registration Service for further details.