Book Appointment for Giving of Notice of Intended Marriage

You can make use of this online service provided by the Immigration Department to make an appointment for giving a Notice of Intended Marriage ("notice"). This article will give you the details about this online service.

Who Can Use This Service?

If you intend to register your marriage in Hong Kong, you need to give a notice in advance to the Registrar.  You can use this online service if you choose to give the notice to a marriage registry in person.

Online Appointment Booking Service

You can access here for the online appointment booking service and for submission of Information Required for Marriage Registration (Form MR21B)

Important Message

You may refer to the following webpage (link) to obtain information and services of the Government offered to Hong Kong residents getting married in Hong Kong, including important message for those intending to apply for admission of their spouse as a dependant.

Important note: Marrying parties involving persons with hearing or speech difficulties should be accompanied by a sign language interpreter or relative or friend who are conversant with sign language to assist in the statutory procedures to give the notice of intended marriage. If needed, members of the public may draw reference from the webpage of the Social Welfare Department for the support services provided by the Multi-service Centre for the Hearing Impaired (link).
For those not familiar with the Chinese language or the English language, they could also be accompanied by an interpreter, a relative or a friend to assist. In addition, Access Officers are available for different offices of the Immigration Department to offer practicable assistance to members of the public in need.

Use of this Service

Using this online service, you can:

• check the earliest date that you can book an appointment for giving of notice
• check the available capacity for marriage ceremony of various marriage registries
• book appointment for giving notice
• submit Information Required for Marriage Registration (Form MR21B)
• enquire, change or cancel an appointment

Check the earliest booking date

You may use online service to check the earliest date that you can make an appointment simply by entering the date of your intended marriage.

Important Note: A marriage notice is valid for three months, and becomes void upon expiry.  Marrying parties have to celebrate the marriage within three months from the date of giving the notice. Otherwise, the notice lapses and marrying parties need to submit another notice afresh before the marriage can take place.

Check the available capacity for marriage ceremony at marriage registries

You can use this service to check the booking situation for marriage ceremony at marriage registries before you start booking an appointment for giving notice.

Book appointment for giving notice

The booking service is provided round-the-clock free of charge.  The appointment is given on a first-come-first-served basis.  Please note that only one appointment could be made by each couple.

You should get ready the documents for entering personal particulars of the marrying parties, including date of birth, Hong Kong identity card/travel document number and contact telephone number for making an appointment.

To facilitate you to enquire, change or cancel your appointment or to submit ‘Information Required for Marriage Registration (Form MR21B)’ after you have made an appointment, you have to enter a self-selected 4-digit number as your enquiry code.

Appointment booking for marriages to be taken place at a marriage registry

Two types of booking are provided for you to select.  Here below are the details.

(i) Appointment booking with priority for choosing marriage hall allotted

At the time when you make the appointment booking for giving notice, if you plan to have your marriage celebrated at a marriage registry on a selected date, and also wish to reserve a specific marriage hall through the appointment booking system, you should make the appointment within 14 days before the 3-month period from the date of marriage.

To illustrate as an example:

As illustrated in the example above, the date of appointment given will not be earlier than the first working day (Monday to Saturday, except General Holidays) within the 3-month period before the date of marriage.

If there are available time slots for marriage ceremony on your selected date of intended marriage at the specified marriage registry, after successfully making an appointment, the system will provide you with:

(a) the date and time for giving notice, and

(b) a priority number for your choosing a time slot for marriage ceremony.

On the appointment day when you give the notice, you will be arranged in accordance with your priority number to select the exact time slot that may then be available for your marriage ceremony.

Important note: Please attend the selected marriage registry/office to give the notice as scheduled.  Failing to turn up on time, both your booking made and your priority for selecting marriage hall as reserved through the booking system will lapse.

(ii) Appointment booking without priority for choosing marriage hall reserved

If you intend to have your marriage celebrated at a marriage registry and,

(a) you have no definite preference for any particular date of marriage, or

(b) you have missed the 14 days before the 3-month period as illustrated in the example in paragraph (i) above,

you will be able to make an appointment booking for a registry / office you choose for giving notice of intended marriage only.  On first-come-first-served basis, the appointment day that may be available to you for giving notice will be within 12 working days, starting from the next working day of the date when you make the appointment.

On the day of giving the notice at the registry/office, you may select the date and time of your marriage at the marriage registry, subject to the availability of marriage quota left at the registry.

Please note that the marrying parties may, subject to the relevant provision of the Marriage Ordinance, contract a marriage only after a notice has been exhibited in the marriage registry for 15 clear days, and the issue of a Certificate of Registrar of Marriages.  The date of marriage that you select should be 15 days after the date of giving notice but within 3 months' validity of the notice.

Marriages to be celebrated at a licensed place of worship or by a civil celebrant

If you intend to celebrate your marriage at a licensed place of worship or by a civil celebrant of marriages, you can make an appointment by selecting a registry/office for giving notice on a day within 12 working days starting from the next working day from the date when you make the appointment.

Appointment reminder

Upon making an appointment successfully, you can choose to receive an email / SMS appointment reminder at the email address / telephone number you provided. The email / SMS reminder will be sent to your email address / telephone number 2 days before the date of appointment. You can change your email address / telephone number or cancel the reminder no less than 3 days before the appointment day.

Enquire, Change or Cancel appointment

You should have the personal particulars of the marrying persons and your enquiry code ready when you enquire, change or cancel your appointment.

Important note: For change or cancellation of appointment, you should make it at least 1 day before the appointment day.  After confirming the change/cancellation, your original appointment will be deleted.

Submission of Information Required for Registration of Marriage

After your successful booking of an appointment for giving the notice, we recommend you to submit in advance the information required for registration of marriage, using our online service.  This will help shorten the counter processing time when you turn up to give the notice on the appointment day.

If you choose to submit the information online, you should submit it at least 1 day before your scheduled appointment.

Part of the information you provided will be used for the preparation of the notice and the marriage certificate. You should ensure the correctness of the information you provided.  In case the submitted information is incorrect, you can make amendments when you turn up on the appointment date for giving the notice.

Telephone Booking Service

Besides the online appointment booking service, you can make an appointment for giving of notice through the 24-hour telephone booking system.  To use the telephone booking service, you should dial (852) 3102 3883 using a touch-tone telephone.

Fees

This online service is free of charge.  You are required to pay for a fee for filing and exhibition of notice on date of appointment and for marriage solemnization on date of marriage.

Assistance and Further Information

If you need technical assistance in using the online service, you can call the Immigration e-Services Hotline at (852) 3128 8668 between 7 am and 11 pm daily.

For general enquiries, please call (852) 2824 6111 during office hours (from 8:45 am to 5:15 pm, Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 12 noon on Saturday, except public holidays), send a fax to (852) 2877 7711 or send an email to enquiry@immd.gov.hk.

Frequently Asked Questions

Further information on the service is also available in a set of helpful Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).