I got married in Australia last month to a nice young (younger than me <img src="../images/emoticons/yalaugh.gif"> german. We now want to register our marital status here; something we have already done in Germany without a problem, but were told our marriage certificate is not acceptable. First we have to order an official marriage certificate from the Department of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Oz then we have to get an apostille on it from the Depart of Foreign affairs. Why can we be regonised as married in Germany and Australia, but not in Belgium? I thought the germans where the one who make things unnecessarily complicated, but this time the Belgiens take the prize!!!

Congrats. on your marriage to a Toy boy!!!!! Another nice lady has passed me by...
I have a British passport and cannot obtain a residency permit in NL. Purely because, I am told in no uncertain terms that my birth certificate has to be vaildated by the Dutch embassy in Nairobi.

He's not quite a toy boy: only 3 years younger!
Why do you need a birth certificate to register? Why Nairobi when you have a british passport? Isn't your passport enough? They sure do make things complicated!!!
I am in the process of organising our marriage certificate from Gov Depart in Aust. which then has to be certified by another Gov Department. In order to get the documents I had to get three forms of ID certified by a lawyer here in Belgium. It's a painstaking process.
Good luck with yours!

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He's not quite a toy boy: only 3 years younger!

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Big deal, Mr. DB is 4 years younger than me. I was once married to a guy 13 years older than me, and once I had a year-long affair with a guy 10 years younger than me. In both cases I didn't notice the age difference all that much except when we were around his friends (who seemed like old farts in the first case and like teenagers in the second).

I had a guy once who was 40 years older than me, try very hard to convince me that this age difference was not a problem. Believe me it WAS!!!! But in the normal situations, who cares???

Under normal circumstances it doesn't matter but both my parents were originally from India and I was born in Kenya.
With the INS in NL, I cheekily suggested that if they paid for my flight, I'd be very happy to go to Nairobi to get my certificate validated. I guess it not enough to a passport from an EU country to be a resident in any other country within the 25 EU member states for people who were not born in these countries. I have given up pursuing the residency permit. It is not beneficial for me to have one anyway.
I was once in love with somebody 18 years my junior and we both loved every minute of it but sadly it didn't last long becasue she was living in San Francisco and I had moved back to London.

Nice mix of nationalities! I guess if it's not necessary to become a resident then why bother? How do you get around issues like Health Insurance if you are not registered?

Each member is suppose to treat you for urgent treatment if you an E111 form. For non-irgent issues I go back to UK for treatment. I have calculated that it is far cheaper than paying for health insurance premiums and doctor visits in this country. Besides, when I need to I can combine it with visiting my friends.

Lucky you. Then I wish you all the best.

Careful! I recently read that the UK was changing (or has changed) access to NHS services. If you live outside of the UK for more than 6 months then you no longer qualify for non-urgent treatment.

I'm afraid I can't remember where I read it though.

oh bother, they are closing all the loop holes.
Please if you remember where you read it, please will you let me know at <a href="mailto:saileshshah@hotmail.com" Target="_BLANK">saileshshah@hotmail.com</a>

The loophole isn't closed completely - but it's slightly more expensive than you may have thought.

If you pay non-resident National Insurance contributions you retain your UK pension rights and your rights to treatment under the NHS. This isn't a 'change' per se, but rather enforcement of the rules which have always applied. - I was warned about it when I left the UK in 1988.

Sailesh, I can understand your frustration about the birth certificate situation - I am going to apply for a residence visa for Belgium, and despite all the screeds of Australian documentation I have to prove I'm who I am, I still have to send my birth certificate back to Zimbabwe for "legalization". On top of that, I have to get it translated into Dutch and then pay for an apostille for it, and get all that legalized too! Argh.

Re: age differences, my beloved is 13.5 years younger than me *brag brag*
The age difference seems to be a problem more for others than for us - we get on very well. Even so, there aren't that many people who have given us grief over it. We've been lucky, I guess.

Nice to hear I am not the only one going through this, not that I wish this on anyone, I truly empathize with you all. I got the ball rolling on my stuff, and hope to have all the necessary documents within the next 2 weeks. All dependant on how fast the Aust bureaucrats work. Ha Ha!

The next thing I have to do is transfer my car registration to Belgium. That will probably be the next nightmare! Anyone been through that before?

We did it because we brought our car from CH - non-EU-country.

All the Germans I met in Antwerp had been driving their cars with German number plates for years. Importation is a big hustle, a nightmare and costly especially as you have to deposit half? of the car´s value with the customs. So if you don´t have the money think about it twice.

This is why I said keep a German address.

Did somebody say that it was going to be easier to live and do business across borders within the EU?

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Importation is a big hustle, a nightmare and costly especially as you have to deposit half? of the car´s value with the customs.
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I've researched this topic alot, but never heard that you have to deposit any money with customs. Yes, it is complicated, but it looks like we will be staying here a long time (more than 5 years), so it is probably worth going through the hassle. I have only had the car for 4 months and love this car!
As we bought the car 1 week after my hubbie had been to register here, we won't have to import it and won't have to pay any customs on it; at least that's what the customs people told me.
To register the car at the inlaws, we would also have to change the registration from Hamburg to Aurich. Either way, it is complicated and we are still contemplating both options.

Get in contact with the customs they´ll tell you all (if they don´t forget half of it) about it.

ozzchic, an other invaluable thing is a German bank account. If you haven´t cancelled yours yet, don´t. Euro transfers from Belgium to Germany are free of charge and often foreighn banks (like when booking holidays)have speacial conditions with Germany but they don´t with Belgium because it´s so small.

Thanks for the tip ddet. No we will definately keep a german account!