Signing
the Notice of Intended Marriage - Needs Witnesses
Before
you can lodge your Notice of Intended Marriage, it needs
to be signed. That might sound simple, but there are a
few boxes that need to be ticked.Your Notice cannot be lodged until you have signed it.
Your signatures must be witnessed by a qualified witness. It's a very short list and you'll find it on page 4 of the Notice form, just above where you sign. Who the qualified witnesses are depends on whether you are in Australia when you sign it, or overseas.
In Australia the qualified witnesses are
- an Authorised Celebrant
- a Justice of the Peace (a Commissioner for
Declarations is NOT a qualified witness)
- a Barrister or Solicitor
- a Medical Practitioner (that means a GP or a
specialist Doctor only)
- a member of the Australian Federal Police or the
police force of a State or Territory (a sworn
officer)
- an Australian Consular Officer
- an Australian Diplomatic Officer,
- an employee of the Commonwealth authorised under paragraph 3(c) of the Consular Fees Act 1955
- an employee of the Australian Trade Commission
authorised under paragraph 3(d) of the Consular Fees
Act 1955.
- a Notary Public (usually a practicing lawyer,
though not all lawyers are Notaries Public)
- Both of you do not have to sign your Notice of Intended Marriage at the same time. And you don’t have to use the same witness. As long as each of you signs in front of a qualified witness, you can sign on different days and use different witnesses
- If one of you is overseas, the Notice can be lodged with your celebrant with only the signature of the person who is in Australia. The other person must, however, sign it before your marriage can take place.
- While most people just sign the Notice in front of
their celebrant, sometimes that may be difficult. In
those cases make sure that you use one of the very
short list of qualified witnesses on page 4 of the
Notice because getting it wrong will invalidate your
Notice and your celebrant will not be able to accept
it