The most unique thing about the marriage laws in Wisconsin is that they contain a great deal of variability from county to county. Because of that, you should make sure that you call your county ahead of time to see exactly what their rules are. These rules should be used as guidelines only, as what your county says is obviously the last word on the subject. If you want to get married, you need one of the people getting married to have a 30-day residency in Wisconsin leading up to the marriage. Furthermore, anyone that is from out of state and wants to apply for a Wisconsin marriage license needs to be able to go to the county office that is closest to their wedding location in order to get their marriage license. Once the marriage license has been obtained, it is good for the next 30 days. When you are applying, you and your marriage partner will need to provide driver’s licenses in order to verify addresses and dates of birth as well as social security numbers to verify identities. You also need birth certificates. The full names of all four parents (including maiden names if applicable) are also required. Different counties may have different documentation requirements, so this is definitely an area you want to ask your county office about before you go in to get the marriage license. Generally, there is a five-day waiting period in Wisconsin, meaning that you need to get the license at least five days before your wedding date. Generally speaking however, the wait in Wisconsin to get the marriage license is such that you should really apply something like 35 days before the wedding takes place. There is also a minimum six-month waiting period for anyone that has gotten divorced. Once you have the Wisconsin marriage license, you can use it for conventional weddings as well as weddings for minors aged 16-17 with parental consent. Weddings for teens aged 15 and younger are not allowed in Wisconsin. Neither are covenant marriages, proxy marriages, cousin marriages, common law marriages or same sex marriages. It is worth stressing one more time that while these are indeed the basic rules regarding the Wisconsin marriage license, it is worth realizing that the amount of county variation present here is quite large. Because of that, you should make it a priority to call ahead and confirm and/or update the information that has been given out in this article. |
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