The Legal Procedure for Court Marriage in Maryland State

I have recently decided to help my niece with her marriage registration in Montgomery county in the town of Gaithersburg in Maryland State. I have become quiet familiar with the entire official court procedure of marriage in the State of Maryland. I am going to cover the entire procedure in this article. The office of the clerk at the circuit court of marriage license department for the Montgomery County is located at 50 Maryland Avenue, Room 111, Rockville, MD-20850, the phone number 240-777=9460. The marriage can be performed at this court only if either the bride or the groom is a resident of Maryland State.

The first step is to obtain the license of the marriage from the said office by personally visiting the office on any working day from 9 am to 6 pm either by the bride or the groom. The clerk at the office will hand over the required form to the individual on request. The applicant will have to fill in this form and sign at the bottom and present it to the clerk along with official State Id and the cash fee of $55 for obtaining the marriage license. This fee is acceptable either by cash or check only and no credit cards are acceptable. The details of both the bride and the groom like full names, addresses, social security number and the visa status are required to fill in this form. The court clerk issues the marriage license immediately within around 15 minutes there after. Make sure to check all the details like exact name, address, and social security number etc to confirm that there are no mistakes in the marriage license issued. Once the marriage license is issued, you will need to perform or register your marriage within six months from the date of the issue of the license at this office. Other wise the marriage license obtained would get cancelled automatically and the applicant will have to get new marriage license issued. However, one can perform the marriage any where in the world and then, can take up registration later at this circuit court. We had decided to arrange the court marriage at this court only as the bride and the groom both were available in the USA and the bride was the resident of the Maryland State.

You need to book your appointment for the marriage ceremony at least two weeks in advance. There may be heavy rush on Fridays and Saturdays due to coming weekend. We had booked our appointment one month in advance as we had planned the marriage on Monday. We were given the time of 10 am. It is essential to reach at least 15 minutes earlier to your time of appointment. You will have to present your license of marriage to the clerk along with the ceremony fee of $25 either in cash or check and the official Ids of both bride and the groom to the court clerk. The court clerk will then call you inside the ceremony room along with your friends and relatives to actually perform the ceremony. Maximum 25 people are allowed to go inside the marriage room. The clerk reads out the exact oath wordings and the bride and the bridegroom will have to repeat verbally the oath by holding the hands of each other. The rings also can be exchanged at this time. Once the oath is taken, the bride and the groom are required to sign in the official record register of the office. After the signature of both the bride and the groom in the marriage register, two witnesses may sign in the register. The witnesses can be any adult individuals above 21 years of age. This completes the process of marriage registration. The clerk then issues the official marriage certificate duly signed and having the official seal of the court to the couple. The charges of $5 are to be paid for issue of each original document of the marriage certificate. We got two original copies of the certificate issued, one for the bride and one for the groom. The entire ceremony was performed very nicely and seriously, creating the real serious effect of the important event like marriage. It took only around 15 minutes for the entire ceremony. The marriage certificates and the copy of the exact oath taken are supplied immediately after the ceremony is over. If you wish to get the xerox copies of this certificate and get them certified by the Notary, it can also be done then and there only as one notary is also available at this office.

This was my first experience of attending the court marriage in the USA. I was really impressed by the entire ceremony and the fast action taken by the office in issuing the necessary marriage certificate immediately after the ceremony. I am sure this article would provide some help and guidance to all my AC friends and readers in case of court marriages in their families.