Upon divorce, is the marriage certificate withdrawn?

A certificate confirming the fact of marriage is, in most cases, important only for ex-wives who want to change their surname after divorce. However, due to inexperience and ignorance, they submit its original along with the statement of claim to the court, which deals with the divorce proceedings and, after completion of the proceedings, sends the case to the archive, from where it is almost impossible to obtain it. The fact is that court officials do not care whether you still have a marriage certificate in your hands after divorces or not, since they act according to instructions prohibiting the release of documents from the archive.

In addition, some citizens are careless about official papers and carelessly allow them to be damaged or destroyed, and then do not know what to do if a document about a previously concluded marriage is suddenly required when contacting government agencies.

All this indicates the following: to prevent such situations from arising, you need to know the answers to the following questions:

  1. Do marriage certificates remain after divorces or not and in what cases does this happen?
  2. Which government agency and how can I obtain copies of a marriage certificate after a couple divorces?
  3. Employees of which government agency can, after a divorce, take away marriage certificates from members of a family union and for what reasons?
  4. How can spouses confirm the validity of their previous marriage and the fact that they have dissolved the family relationship?

Are marriage certificates taken from spouses during a divorce and for what reasons?


Upon divorce, the marriage certificate is confiscated from the former spouses by the civil registry office staff to transfer this civil status act to the archive. This provision is established by the law “On Archival Affairs in the Russian Federation”. However, what exactly will be taken from you: the original or a duplicate, depends on the discretion of the registry office employees. The court may also take away the original document from you for inclusion in the case file sent to the archive. To prevent this from happening, you should never attach original official papers to your statement of claim. You only need to bring originals to court hearings.

Upon divorce, the marriage certificate is confiscated, features of the procedure

A marriage certificate is a mandatory document issued to newlyweds.

This legal act is issued to newlyweds on the day of the wedding and is actually the main act in the social unit.

The document allows one party to change their last name.

Additionally, spouses will need it when:

  1. birth of a baby;
  2. obtaining a mortgage loan;
  3. when purchasing real estate.

This document will also be needed upon dissolution of the marriage. When filing a claim or a correctly completed application for divorce, a package of documents is attached, which includes a marriage certificate.

In fact, a document may be missing for several reasons:

  1. if this certificate is lost during marriage;
  2. in case of theft;
  3. in case of fire, flood or other force majeure.

There are situations when one spouse simply does not give a copy to the other. He does this so that the other one cannot start the divorce process.

This point involves obtaining a duplicate from the registry office. To do this, you need to pay the state fee and submit the appropriate application.

As soon as the court or the registry office makes a decision to divorce, the spouses remain ex-wife on the basis of the law. Accordingly, they do not have a common household, and all property is divided in half.

That is why the marriage registration certificate is taken away. After all, the document confirmed the existence of a social unit, and if it does not exist, then there is nothing to confirm.

That is why authorized employees confiscate the marriage certificate after the divorce decree enters into force. The ex-spouses will no longer need it.

This certificate is replaced by a certificate of divorce proceedings. Accordingly, the couple breaks up and no longer conducts joint activities.

The form for dissolution of the marriage union is issued in duplicate. After this, the form can be presented at the place of request by each spouse. Such a document also allows the woman to return to her maiden name.

Neither party will need a marriage document after a divorce. Now the place is occupied by a divorce certificate, and it is this document that is endowed with official force after the divorce process and is presented to authorized employees.

If this legal act is lost by one of the parties, restoration is also carried out by only one person.

What is given in return

In a situation with spouses who have already divorced and received a certificate of termination of the marriage union between them, the registry office can act in relation to the marriage certificate in two different ways:

  1. On the original certificate confirming the fact of the marriage between the spouses, the authorized civil registry office employee puts a stamp marked “Invalid”. This is an official confirmation that a document has lost its legal force. Next, he makes a copy of this paper in order to remove it and add it to the archival data. In this case, the original certificate may remain with the former spouses.
  2. Civil registry office employees take away from the wife and husband a certificate certifying the fact of registration of family relations, citing the fact that at any time former participants in family relations can receive a certificate containing the same information as the original document. They should not be allowed to do this. It is necessary to request a copy certified by an authorized employee to be made instead of the original, which is confiscated by the registry office. If a government agency refuses to comply with your demands, seek protection from the court, because the registry office has no right to irrevocably take away your certificate. You must have at least a copy of this document in your possession.


In the event that the original certificate certifying the fact of the marriage union was seized by the judicial authority and sent to the court archive, there is only one opportunity to obtain a copy of it. To do this, you will need to submit an application to the registry office, which was responsible for registering the marriage relationship, with a request to provide a certificate of previous marriage.

If the government agency where you got married is located in another city, then in order to get a duplicate, you will need to go to this locality to get it.

In addition, the following life situation may arise: a judicial authority is considering a divorce case, and the defendant and plaintiff do not have marriage certificates. In this case, the interested person, who, as a rule, is the plaintiff, requests a duplicate through the registry office. Since this is not the first time the spouse has received the certificate, government officials mark it as “Repeated.”

This is done so that it is impossible to use the original, since the conclusion of the registry office, which formalizes the issuance of a duplicate, deprives the legal force of the first document.

The relevance of the certificate of entry into marital relations after their breakup

The marriage certificate is necessarily confiscated at the time of its dissolution. The original can remain in hand only if it is hidden, for example, under the pretext of “loss”. Only a duplicate of the document will be entered into the archive. The certificate remaining in hand after the divorce will no longer have legal force. There is no point in trying to use it. If you need to prove a previously concluded marriage, you can present a certificate of its dissolution and an extract from the registry office. Presenting the original will only cause unnecessary questions and controversy.

Consequently, the certificate of marriage must be confiscated by authorized bodies (employees of the registry office, court) after the completion of the divorce procedure. In return, a document is issued confirming the severance of the union between the parties. If you need to confirm a previously concluded marriage, you can use a certified duplicate of the certificate or an extract from the registry office. A hidden original is not evidence.

Registration of relationships implies an official certificate with a seal confirming the creation of a family. A marriage certificate after the dissolution of a marriage may be required to obtain a mortgage, permission to take a child abroad, to officially break up a relationship, or, if necessary, to obtain rights to real estate.

The dissolution of a marriage occurs for various reasons: infidelity, tense relationships, domestic violence. The procedure is carried out at the request of the spouses, carried out in court or through the registry office. The process in the registry office is called administrative, taking place in an accelerated manner. You can submit a general application or individually. Then the second spouse signs the documentation without visiting the registry office; the signature must be certified by a notary. It is difficult to restore and obtain a marriage certificate: it is confiscated and stored in state archives.

How to confirm that there was a marriage

Document's nameAs confirmed
Marriage certificate or a duly certified copy thereofThe most reliable way to confirm the marriage that a husband and wife had in the past.
Certificate from the registry officeIssued from the archives of a government agency in the form of an extract containing information from a previously issued marriage certificate. To receive it, you will need to pay a fee of 200 rubles to the state treasury.
Certificate confirming the fact of death + a copy of the marriage certificate or a certificate from the registry officeThis set of official documents certifies the fact of marital relations with the deceased spouse.
Court decision or verdict + copy of marriage certificate or certificate from the registry officeThese documents certify a previous marriage with a person imprisoned for more than 3 years, missing or incompetent.

Upon divorce at the registry office

It is known that marriage ties can be dissolved in the registry office and in court. These two procedures have significant differences, but in both cases the marriage certificate remains in the archives after the divorce. Not all couples can dissolve a marriage in the registry office; the mandatory items must be:

  1. Mutual consent to divorce.
  2. No joint minor children.

If the above conditions are met, then the divorce procedure is 30 days, after a written application with a full package of documents and payment of the state fee. A court decision will be issued to sever the official relationship between these persons, and the marriage certificate will be confiscated. The marriage certificate is kept for 75 years; after this time, it must be destroyed.

How to confirm that a marriage is dissolved

According to the twenty-fifth article of the Family Code, spouses were able to officially divorce when the registry office made an appropriate entry in the book registering acts of civil status, or when the court decision in the divorce case came into force.

The document that is transferred to both former spouses and confirms the breakdown of family relations between them is a certificate of termination of marriage issued by the registry office.

If it becomes unusable or destroyed, you can obtain a second certificate from the registry office by submitting the appropriate application and paying a fee of 350 rubles to the state treasury.

The need for a marriage certificate/duplicate after divorce

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Often a woman who goes by her husband's last name is required to prove her relationship with her own parents. Confirmation of a change of surname is necessary when registering an inheritance or obtaining citizenship. A certain period of time is required to restore documents. When a woman moves to another city/country, the situation becomes more complicated. The absence of the required document in the archives will not allow the restoration of the evidence, which is confiscated after the trial. A marriage certificate is an important document confirming the change of surname. After the divorce, the document is taken away for storage in the court archives. And after the dissolution of the union, a duplicate marriage certificate is not issued. Former spouses receive the appropriate certificate, the certificate is taken away in court and it is quite difficult to restore the document. You will have to obtain a certificate from the archive and prove in court the right to the first surname. Taking the necessary actions will help prevent an unpleasant situation. You will need to obtain a duplicate of the certificate by submitting only one copy during the divorce.

It is available to take a certificate confirming the change of passport details/the fact of divorce - it will be easier to restore the surname.

When applying at your place of residence, you will not have to wait long for a marriage certificate to be issued after a divorce. A certificate based on an application submitted in another city/sent by mail can be received after a few days.

The legislative framework

Name of the normative actWhat regulates
Family Code of RussiaArticle 25 establishes the moment from which the marriage union is considered officially dissolved. From this moment on, a certificate certifying the fact of termination of the marriage comes into force.
Russian Tax CodeArticle 333.26 regulates the amount of state fees that must be paid to obtain government services at the registry office.
Federal Law “On Archiving in the Russian Federation”Chapter 4 establishes the procedure for recording and storage periods for archival papers and documents.
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