Changes to marriage notice period

No words of advice & I certainly can't help with the legal bit but have you tried ringing them to tell them your problem? Maybe if you speak with them they'll let this one go.

I must add that from what I've read it was 15 working days so this would be 3 weeks in total. I may be wrong but that's how I read it.

Is it far enough in advance for you to change the date you fly to an earlier date?

I would be in contact with them to see if there's anything they can do, if not find out if they have a complaints procedure you can go through. Do you have wedding insurance, you may be able to claim through that. As a last resort see if you can change the dates of your flights. Let us know how you get on.

Hi there.

I can't help with the recent changes, and I'm not sure whether you will find this helpful or not, but as the previous poster said, the old rules were 15 working days, plus the 8 days residency prior to giving notice, so at a minimum you would have needed 29(full) days in the country before your wedding date.

I know this because OH and i are both british citizens, resident in NZ. We had a similar situation to you: we booked our flights, church and reception based on the 15 day notice period, only to be informed by our church minister that we had been either mis understood or been poorly advised by the registrars office and the 15 days was working days not consecutive.

In our case we couldn't afford the additional time it would neccessitate off work so we altered our plans slightly and had our intended marriage blesed instead. That was 3 weeks ago and i absolutely consider that day to be my wedding day. It looked like a wedding day in every respect, except that we made no legal declarations andd didn't sign the register. We had the full on gown, bridesmaids, and most importantly exchanged vows and rings in the presence of our family and friends. If due to the changes legally marrying in the uk is no longer an option for you i would be happy to explain more about what we did instead.

In our case we had always planned to have a small celebration back here in NZ with our friends, so now we wiĺl do that oon the day we do the legal bit. And bonus, i get to wear my dress twice!

We never went back to the registry office so i cant help with whether you have any recourse there. Sorry this has happened, but you are not alone and you can still have an anazing wedding day. Feel free to message me if you want to chat.

The old rules were/are 15 clear days not working days. However the rules are changing to enable sufficient time between giving notice and the issue of a certificate for the marriage intention to be investigated ie sham marriages. Whilst the government regularly update registration authorities of intended dates for this to take effect there can be, and have in the past been, changes to this date. So, whilst they may have had an inkling, until this is absolutely confirmed the actual date can not be passed on.

i doubt that you would have a legal case against them as they are not responsible for what the government does but it may be that you could apply for a waiver. You will pay for this and there is absolutely no guarantee you would get it. Also you apply for it at the time you give notice so again this makes it difficult for you.

Sounds a bit like a rock and a hard place.