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📋 Complete Documents List
Marriage Documents Required
Complete list for Bride, Groom, Witnesses. Special cases (NRI, Divorcee, Widow, Foreign) documents. Affidavit format guidance.
Complete list for Bride, Groom, Witnesses. Special cases (NRI, Divorcee, Widow, Foreign) documents. Affidavit format guidance.
Having the right documents is essential for marriage. Here is the complete detailed list you can prepare in advance. If any document is missing, we can help arrange it — call +91 8376863962.
Same documents as bride:
2 witnesses for Arya Samaj, 3 for Court Marriage:
💡 Witnesses: bring friends, colleagues or relatives who know you personally. We do not provide witnesses.
Several affidavits needed. We prepare all — ₹500 per affidavit (Notary included).
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Couples usually arrive with a folder and a vague sense that more paper is safer. It is not. What an office needs is not a thick file but a file in which three separate facts are each proved by something acceptable. Once you see the three jobs, the whole list stops being arbitrary.
Job one — how old you are. The bridegroom must have completed twenty-one years and the bride eighteen. This is the fact on which a marriage can be attacked years later, so it is the fact the office looks at hardest.
Job two — who you are. That the person standing at the counter is the person named in the papers, and that the same person is named consistently across all of them.
Job three — where you live. This matters only for some routes, but where it matters it decides which office has jurisdiction over your file.
Some documents do more than one job. Aadhaar can carry all three, which is why it dominates the list — but it is also the document most likely to be quietly out of date, which is why it causes the most trouble.
| Document | Age | Identity | Address | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aadhaar | Yes | Yes | Yes | Old address; year-of-birth only instead of a full date; a spelling nobody else uses |
| Passport | Yes | Yes | Yes | Expired; surname and given name split differently from every other document |
| PAN | Yes | Yes | No | Father's name or initials differ from other documents |
| Birth certificate | Strongest | Partly | No | Issued before a name was chosen, so it reads "Baby of …" |
| School leaving certificate | Yes | Partly | No | A date entered approximately at admission, now contradicting Aadhaar |
| Voter ID | Sometimes | Yes | Yes | Old address; a regional spelling of the name |
| Driving licence | Yes | Yes | Yes | Expired; address from the year you applied |
| Ration card | No | Partly | Yes | Household document — useful as support, weak alone |
| Utility bill | No | No | Yes | Must be recent and in a name connected to you |
| Rent agreement | No | No | Yes | Must be genuine and both names on it where both of you live there |
| Bank passbook | No | Partly | Sometimes | Accepted for address by some offices, not all |
The practical rule: bring one strong age proof each, one strong identity proof each, and one current address proof each, and then bring the extras as backup rather than as the main event.
Age is the one thing we check before we discuss anything else, including money. It is also the allegation a hostile family most often makes, and unlike the others it is decided on documents rather than on your word.
Ranked by the weight it carries:
1. Birth certificate issued by the municipal authority — the primary record, created closest to the event. 2. Passport — issued after its own verification. 3. School leaving or transfer certificate from a recognised school, and the matriculation certificate where you have it. 4. Aadhaar — accepted widely and convenient, but derived from documents you supplied, so it is only as good as what went into it. 5. PAN, where it carries a full date of birth. 6. Driving licence.
When two documents disagree. This happens constantly, especially for people born in villages and small towns before birth registration was routine, where a school admission date was recorded approximately and has since propagated into Aadhaar. Nobody did anything wrong; the records simply diverged.
It has to be resolved, because an office will not register a marriage on the basis of two contradictory dates of birth, and because a family contesting the marriage later will use exactly that contradiction. The resolution is to establish which document is right and bring the others into line with it, working from the earliest and most authoritative record you can obtain. Where the difference is small and the person is comfortably over age on both dates, it may be possible to proceed on the stronger document and correct the rest afterwards — but that is a judgment to make with a clear head a week early, not at a counter.
Neither of the two shortcuts works. An affidavit stating an age does not create an age. A medical age estimate is not a substitute for a record. If the documents put either of you near the legal line and do not agree, we will not proceed until it is sorted out, whoever is asking and whatever the urgency.
Address proof does a narrower job than couples assume. For an Arya Samaj ceremony it is part of identification. For registration it can decide which office your file belongs to. For the Special Marriage Act it is a statutory requirement with a time attached: notice is given to the Marriage Officer of a district where at least one of you has resided for at least thirty days immediately before giving the notice.
What counts as residence: living somewhere. A home you occupy, a flat you rent under a genuine agreement, a family house you actually stay in, employer accommodation you actually occupy. Evidence that supports it: Aadhaar carrying that address, a voter ID, a utility bill, a rent agreement with a landlord who exists, a bank statement posted there.
What does not count: a hotel or guest house, however many nights. A PG address where you have never stayed. A relative's address borrowed for the file. A rent agreement created for the purpose, with no rent ever paid. An office address. A friend's flat you visited twice.
The NCR point, because it catches people weekly: Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Indirapuram, Vaishali, Kaushambi, Sahibabad, Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonipat and Bahadurgarh are not Delhi. A Delhi office cannot take a Special Marriage Act notice on a Noida address. Kaushambi is two minutes' walk from Anand Vihar ISBT, and the ISBT is Delhi while Kaushambi is Uttar Pradesh. The Violet Line runs to Escorts Mujesar and Raja Nahar Singh, and the state line still sits at Badarpur. A metro map is not a jurisdiction map.
If your Aadhaar address is old, update it — it is free, it is done online or at an enrolment centre, and it removes the single most common documentary obstacle we see. Do it two weeks before you need it, not two days.
More applications are delayed by name mismatches than by anything else on this page, including missing documents. It is worth an entire section because the fix is free and takes one evening.
How it happens. A name is entered one way on a school record in 1998, another way on a PAN card in 2012, a third way on an Aadhaar in 2017 because the operator typed what he heard. Priyanka and Priyanaka. Mohd and Mohammad. Kumar present on one and absent on another. A surname that is a caste name on some documents and not on others. A middle name that appears as an initial in one place and in full elsewhere. Regional transliteration — Sunil against Suneel, Neha against Nehaa.
Why it matters here. The marriage certificate will carry the name written on the affidavit. If that name does not match the passport, every later step fails: the passport office, the visa application, the bank, the apostille. And a certificate that has already been apostilled with a wrong spelling is far harder to fix than an ordinary one, because the correction has to work its way back through the whole chain.
The fix, tonight, for free:
Put every document for both of you on a table. Write out each name exactly as it appears on each one. Choose one spelling per person — normally whatever your passport says, or if there is no passport, whatever your Aadhaar says. Use that spelling on the affidavit, on the application, and everywhere else from now on. Then make a short list of which documents need correcting, and correct them in your own time — but get the affidavit right now, because that is the one that becomes permanent.
Read the affidavit before signing it. Ninety seconds of reading saves a correction application that takes weeks. We will hand it to you to read; please actually read it, including the father's name and the date of birth, not just your own name.
Section 5(i) of the Hindu Marriage Act requires that neither party has a living spouse at the time of the marriage. A marriage in breach of it is void, and it is also an offence. So where there has been a previous marriage, the document proving it ended is not one item among many — it is the document the whole file stands on.
If the previous marriage ended in divorce: the decree of divorce, not the order sheet, not a photocopy of a petition, not a lawyer's letter. And the decree must be final. If the period for filing an appeal is still running, or an appeal is pending, the position is not settled. Get written confirmation from the advocate who handled the divorce stating the date of the decree and confirming that the appeal period has expired with no appeal filed.
If the previous spouse died: the death certificate issued by the municipal authority. A hospital summary or a cremation slip is not the certificate.
If the previous marriage was annulled: the decree of nullity.
What does not work: an affidavit saying "my first marriage is over". A mutual settlement written on stamp paper. A long separation, however many years. A talaqnama where the position under the applicable law has not been established. Any of these offered instead of a decree is a reason to stop, not a reason to proceed carefully.
The honest warning. We have been asked, more than once, to proceed anyway. We do not, and the reason is not squeamishness. A void marriage gives the second spouse almost nothing — no succession rights worth having, a fragile position on maintenance, and a certificate that becomes evidence against the person who obtained it. The person harmed most is usually the one who was told everything was fine.
Two witnesses for the Arya Samaj ceremony and for registration under the Hindu Marriage Act. Three for solemnisation under the Special Marriage Act.
What each witness brings: an original photo identity document — Aadhaar, voter ID, passport, driving licence or PAN — with a photocopy, and passport-size photographs. Some offices ask for the witness's address proof as well, so an Aadhaar that carries both is the simplest thing to bring.
What a witness must be: an adult, present at the marriage, and someone who genuinely knows the two of you. That is the whole requirement, and it does not include being a relative, being of any particular religion, or being from Delhi.
What we will not do: provide witnesses. Ever, for any fee, for anybody. A witness signs a document stating that he was present and knows you. A stranger arranged by an agent cannot honestly sign that, and what it produces is a marriage with a defect lying dormant inside it — until a succession dispute, a maintenance case, or a consulate that rings the witness listed on your certificate and finds a man who has never heard of you.
Who can be your witness: a friend, a colleague, a cousin, a neighbour, a flatmate, a landlord, the friend who drove you there. If you genuinely cannot find two people, tell us before booking — the real problem is usually a fear about who will talk, and that has better answers than paid strangers.
A small thing that sends people back out to a photo shop on the morning, so here it is properly.
Count. Six to eight passport-size photographs each is the safe number. Different steps consume them — the application, the affidavits, the register, the certificate — and running out mid-process is an avoidable irritation. Bring more than you think you need.
Specification. Passport size, recent, plain light background, face clearly visible and filling a reasonable part of the frame, no dark glasses, no cap. Print quality rather than a phone photograph printed at a shop, because a poor print that does not resemble the person at the counter genuinely does cause questions.
The joint photograph. Registration applications generally require a photograph of the couple together. Some offices want it taken at the wedding, which is another reason to take proper photographs on the day rather than relying on someone's phone.
Witnesses' photographs. Two or three each is normally enough.
Couples sign affidavits without reading them, which is a pity, because an affidavit is a statement on oath and what it says becomes what your certificate says.
The affidavit of date of birth states your date of birth and refers to the document proving it. It exists because the office needs a sworn statement to sit alongside the documentary proof.
The affidavit of marital status states whether you have been married before and, if so, how that marriage ended, referring to the decree or death certificate. Where there has been no previous marriage, it states that you are unmarried.
The affidavit of free consent states that the marriage is being entered into of your own free will, without coercion, pressure or inducement. It is the shortest of them and it is the one that matters most if the marriage is ever challenged.
The affidavit of residence, where a route requires it, states where you live and for how long.
The joint affidavit, in registration applications, states the fact of the marriage — the date, the place, the rites performed, and the witnesses present.
Before you sign each one, check four things: the spelling of your own name; the spelling of your father's name; the date of birth; and the date and place of the marriage. Those four fields account for nearly every correction application we later have to make.
Affidavits are executed on stamp paper of the prescribed value and sworn before the appropriate authority. We draft them, but they are your sworn statements — read them as such.
An additional layer sits on top of the ordinary list, and it varies by nationality and by the office, so treat this as the shape rather than a guarantee.
Passport — valid, with the pages showing the date of entry into India.
Visa — valid, of a category appropriate to the purpose. Some offices look closely at this; a visa category that does not fit can cause a refusal at the counter.
Proof of marital status — typically a certificate of no impediment, single-status certificate, or equivalent issued by the person's own embassy or home authority, sometimes requiring attestation. Where there has been a previous marriage, the foreign decree of divorce, usually with attestation and a certified translation if it is not in English.
Proof of address in India for the period relied on, where a route requires residence.
OCI or PIO card, where applicable.
Certified translations of anything not in English or Hindi.
The two things that ruin NRI files. First, time: the certificate is only the start — state authentication, MEA apostille and sometimes embassy attestation follow, and the chain is sequential. Budget six weeks, not two, and plan backwards from the departure date. Second, name mismatch: the name on the marriage certificate must match the passport exactly, because every later document in the chain copies it forward. Our NRI marriage page maps the whole sequence.
There is no proxy marriage, no power-of-attorney marriage and no video-call marriage in India. Both parties must be physically present. Anyone offering otherwise is offering a document that will fail at the first serious check.
The nikah and its registration are two steps with two document sets, and the confusion between them is the same one Hindu couples have about the mandir certificate.
For the nikah: identity and age proof for both parties; the witnesses' identity; the mehr agreed and recorded; and the wali's position where that applies. The Qazi draws up the nikahnama, which is signed by the parties and the witnesses.
For registration of that nikah with the government: the nikahnama, both parties' identity and age proof, address proof, photographs, the witnesses' documents, and the affidavits. The government certificate that results is the document a passport office, a bank, an insurer or an embassy will act on — a nikahnama alone frequently is not.
The recurring obstacles, and what fixes each:
| Problem | What it needs |
|---|---|
| Nikahnama written in Urdu | A certified translation, which many offices require before they will read it |
| Nikahnama lost | A fresh record from the Qazi or the institution that performed it, or a marriage deed drawn up with affidavits where the original cannot be traced |
| Nikah performed years ago, Qazi untraceable | A marriage deed and affidavits, with whatever supporting evidence exists — invitation, photographs, documents naming the spouse over the years |
| Spellings on the nikahnama do not match Aadhaar | Resolve the spelling before registration, not after |
| Interfaith couple, neither wishes to convert | The Special Marriage Act route and its documents, with the 30-day notice |
Here the ordinary list still applies, and a second list is added: evidence that the marriage actually happened. The office has to be satisfied about an event it has no record of.
| Evidence | Weight | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Attested extract from the solemnising institution's marriage register, quoting the entry number | Strongest | Write to the institution. Worth real effort — this single document often carries the whole application. |
| Original mandir or institution marriage certificate | Strong | You should already have it |
| Wedding invitation card | Supporting | Dated, naming both parties and families |
| Wedding photographs showing the witnesses | Supporting | Particularly useful where the same witnesses will attend |
| Documents naming a spouse over the years | Supporting | Passport, employer records, insurance nomination, bank, ration card |
| Children's birth certificates naming both parents | Supporting | Strong where the marriage is decades old |
| Joint affidavits of both spouses | Required | Necessary, but not sufficient on their own |
| Affidavits of the witnesses | Required | Where the original witnesses are available |
If the original witnesses have died or cannot be found, say so plainly and rely on the register extract and the documentary trail. Do not produce two strangers and describe them as the witnesses to a wedding from 1997. That converts a genuine application into a false one.
The deadline that is absolute. Once a spouse has died, the marriage can no longer be registered. A certified copy of an existing record can still be obtained if registration happened during their lifetime, but a fresh registration cannot. Anyone who has been meaning to get round to this should treat that sentence as the reason to do it this month.
Where a couple faces genuine threats, the advocate's petition needs a different file again. Knowing it in advance means the petition can be filed quickly rather than after a week of gathering.
Proof that both of you are adults — the same age documents, because the petition will assert your ages and the other side will test them.
Proof of the marriage — the certificate, or the mandir certificate with the registration application if registration is still in progress.
Identity and current address for both of you.
Evidence of the threat, and this is the part that decides the petition. Screenshots of messages with dates and the sender visible. Call logs. Voice notes. A note of each incident — what was said, by whom, when, and to whom. Copies of any complaint made to the police, and of any complaint made against you. The names of the persons complained of, and their relationship to each of you. Where there have been visits to your workplace, landlord or family, a note of those with dates.
Why the specificity matters. Courts have grown wary of protection petitions filed with no genuine threat, purely to manufacture a document that looks like judicial approval of a marriage, and several High Courts have dismissed such petitions with observations. A petition saying "our families are against us" will not carry. A petition saying "on 14 August at 9.40 pm my brother telephoned my husband and said X; on 17 August two men came to his employer's office" is a different document altogether.
The ₹56,000 Premium package covers the full court marriage and documentation together with this petition, drafted and filed before the High Court by an advocate, and follow-up on the order. Most couples with disapproving families and no actual threats do not need it, and we will say so.
If the certificate is leaving India, the chain has its own requirements.
The original certificate. The original travels through the chain, not a photocopy, so plan on being without it for a few weeks.
Passport copies of both spouses.
The authorisation where somebody is submitting on your behalf.
Translations where the destination country requires the document in its own language, done by an accepted translator.
Anything the destination embassy specifically asks for, which varies and changes, so check the current requirement rather than a list from two years ago.
The sequence is: certificate, then state-level authentication (whose first step differs for a Delhi certificate and a Haryana or UP one), then the MEA apostille, then embassy attestation if required, then translation. Sequential, not parallel.
Couples bring these because a relative insisted, or because they were asked for them by somebody who was mistaken. None of them is a legal requirement for a marriage between two adults.
| Frequently demanded | The position |
|---|---|
| Caste certificate | Caste is not among the five conditions in Section 5. Not needed for the ceremony or for registration. |
| Parents' consent letter | Not a condition for adults. The Supreme Court has said parents who disapprove may at most cut social relations. |
| Parents' identity documents | Not required. |
| Gotra certificate or a pandit's clearance | No such document exists in law. Gotra is not mentioned in the Hindu Marriage Act. |
| Horoscope or kundli matching | Not a legal concept. |
| NOC from a panchayat or community body | No such body has authority to grant or withhold anything. |
| Proof of conversion, for two Hindus | Not required. Nothing to convert. |
| A "marriage NOC" from an employer | Not a requirement of marriage law. A service rule about intimation, where one exists, is a separate matter between you and your employer. |
If an office asks you for one of these, it is usually a misunderstanding rather than anything worse, and it is usually resolved by politely asking which provision the requirement comes from. Tell us the same day if it happens and our advocate will take it up.
Almost every documentary problem we meet is fixable, and most of them are fixable by you, free or nearly free, if you start early enough. This table is the reason to do the pre-check a week before rather than the night before.
| Problem | What to do | Roughly how long |
|---|---|---|
| Aadhaar carries an old address | Update it online or at an enrolment centre with a current address proof | Days |
| Aadhaar shows only a year of birth | Update the date of birth with a birth certificate or school record | Days to weeks |
| Aadhaar name spelled differently from the passport | Correct the Aadhaar to match the passport, not the other way round | Days to weeks |
| Mobile number linked to Aadhaar is old, so OTPs never arrive | Update it at an enrolment centre. Essential before touching the UP portal. | Days |
| School certificate and Aadhaar give different dates of birth | Establish which is right from the earliest record and bring the others into line | Weeks — start early |
| No birth certificate at all | Apply for a delayed registration with the municipal authority, or rely on the school record and passport | Weeks |
| Passport expired | Re-issue. Do this first if the marriage certificate is going abroad. | Weeks |
| Divorce decree not traceable | Apply for a certified copy from the court that passed it, quoting the case number | Weeks |
| Unsure whether the divorce is final | Written confirmation from the advocate who handled it | Days |
| Death certificate of a previous spouse not held | Apply to the municipal authority where the death was registered | Weeks |
| Mandir certificate lost | Ask the institution for an attested extract from its register, quoting the entry number | Days to weeks |
| Government certificate lost | Duplicate application — fast if you can quote the registration number, date and office | Weeks |
| Name misspelled on an issued certificate | Correction application, decided on what your other documents show | Longer than a duplicate |
| Nikahnama in Urdu | Certified translation | Days |
| Witness cannot attend on the day | Arrange a different witness who genuinely knows you. Never a paid stranger. | Immediate |
Find the line that describes you and take what it lists.
Hindu couple, same-day Arya Samaj ceremony. Each: age proof, address proof, six to eight photographs, and a divorce decree or death certificate if previously married. Two witnesses with original photo ID and photographs.
Hindu couple, ceremony plus SDM registration (the ₹7,100 package). Everything above, plus the mandir certificate, the joint photograph, the affidavits, and proof supporting the jurisdiction you are applying in.
Registering a marriage solemnised earlier. Both sets of identity, age and address proof; the institution certificate and, ideally, the attested register extract with the entry number; the joint photograph; affidavits from both spouses; witnesses with their documents; and the supporting trail — invitation, photographs, documents naming the spouse over the years.
Special Marriage Act. Both sets of identity, age and address proof; proof of thirty days' residence in the district for at least one of you; photographs; the decree or death certificate where there was a previous marriage; and three witnesses at solemnisation.
Inter-religion couple using the Special Marriage Act. The same list. No conversion documents are required, because no conversion is required. If you are considering conversion instead, take advice about the law of the state where you live before doing anything.
Muslim couple, nikah with registration. Identity and age proof for both; witnesses' documents; the mehr recorded; the nikahnama; then, for registration, address proof, photographs and affidavits. A translation if the nikahnama is in Urdu.
NRI or foreign national. Everything in the relevant list above, plus passport, visa, proof of marital status from the home authority or embassy, certified translations, and OCI or PIO card where applicable. Start the apostille planning on day one.
Couple facing threats. Everything in the relevant list above, plus the threat file described earlier — dated screenshots, call logs, a written note of each incident, and copies of any police complaint either way.
One — scan everything to an account only you control. Both of you. Every identity document, every certificate, the decree if there is one. Put them in an email account or cloud drive whose password nobody in either family knows. This takes twenty minutes and it is the difference between an inconvenience and a crisis if documents are ever withheld from you. It is also simply useful, because the pre-check then takes two minutes instead of an evening.
Two — keep three facts written down separately from the certificate itself. The registration number, the date of registration, and the office where it was registered. Write them in a notes app and in one physical place that is not the same folder as the certificate. Couples who do this and later lose the certificate solve the problem in a week. Couples who do not can spend months, because somebody has to find the entry before they can copy it.
Photograph everything, both of you, and send it on WhatsApp. We check names, dates of birth, addresses, previous-marriage papers and witness identity, and we tell you what is missing or mismatched before you travel anywhere or pay anything. It takes us about twenty minutes and it is the highest-value free thing on this website.
Then call +91 8376863962 and tell us your ages, your religions, whether either of you has been married before, where each of you actually lives, and any fixed deadline. Ten minutes settles the route, the cost and the timeline.
21 and 18: rules, proof and penalties.
Read →How many, who can be, what to bring.
Read →Apply online step by step.
Read →Section-by-section legal comparison.
Read →Full process, documents, fees and timeline.
Read →Complete pricing.
Read →Step by step.
Read →Vedic ceremony details.
Read →SDM registration.
Read →NRI documents.
Read →Which office, the 60-day rule, real government fees.
Read →Old marriage, the penalty, and what proof works.
Read →Wrong name or date on the certificate — what actually fixes it.
Read →The four clocks, who must attend, and planning backwards.
Read →Two or three, who qualifies, and what a witness signs.
Read →Document help.
Read →Expert articles on every marriage topic — read before you decide
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