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To get married in Belgium or in England/UK?
Hi! My fiancée and I are newly engaged and trying to find out if we should get married in England (where I am from) or in Belgium (where he is from). Any advice?!
Has anyone else been in this situation and can offer suggestions, pros/cons about either option?
As far as I can tell the key issues are that in Belgium the actual marriage would have to be in Dutch (our commune is one of those sticklers that won't deal with any other language) which I don't understand. But planning a wedding from another country (in English which is the language my fiancée and I communicate in!) might prove tricky.
But from what I can gather the paperwork hoops they put you through here seem far more elaborate than might be the case in England.
At a loss as to how to make this decision! Help!
Hate to be negative, but............
My late British husband and I (Belgiam) were married in the UK many many years ago and then moved to Belgium . Unfortunately he died earlier this year. Then the nightmares began. Belgium considered since we did not have a marriage contract our assets belonged to us individually not a couple, which made inheritance complicated. I have 3 children, there was no argument between us about the assets, but the red tape is unbelievable. If I were in your shoes I would cope with the language problems now rather than in 50 years.
Congratulations!
My English parents (more my difficult mother) hated the idea that my husband and I would get married in Belgium (we were both in our early 30's), we were trying to be reasonable. I let my English family sort out all the wedding formalities in England. They wanted to run the show, so I left them to handle all the legal formalities. My Belgian relatives did not mind.
For a church or civil wedding in 1994 we both had to show proof that we had been in the UK for 3 weeks and in the country village where we would be getting married. It was a legal formality to have a special marriage licence and a marriage certificate.
I suggest you always send a photocopy of your marriage certificate and marriage licence with all your Belgian tax papers. For many years the Belgian government tax authorities kept making blunders with all the photocopies.
We suggested to the Belgian government tax authorities that if they did not understand the legal documents they should contact the UK government.
If one partner is not a Dutch speaker, then a simultaneous translator has to be present.
I did this a little over two years ago.
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