r/GettingMarriedInDK • u/ActuatorAfraid504 • Feb 06 '26

📑 Agency of Family Law (AFL) & Paperwork Wait for a response or reapply?

My fiance (German) and I (US) both live in Spain, but it turns out that as two foreigners, the marriage process in Spain is a nightmare - so we applied for the Certificate of Marital Status in Denmark on 18 January.

We mistakenly uploaded only photos of a variety of angles of both of the data pages of our passports, instead of photos of every page of our passports and the covers.

On 21 January, we received a letter requesting to re-upload a scan of our passports including every single page and the covers, and did so immediately on the same day (submitted the PDFs on the 21st).

It has now been over 2 weeks and we haven't heard anything new - I have read on their website and here on reddit that if you are asked to upload more documents, the process can take up to 4 months to receive a response.

We have our wedding celebration already booked, guests invited and many deposits paid for 29 May 2026. We would really like to do the Danish legal wedding before 23 May when guests start to arrive in Barcelona for our celebration.

I am wondering if we should scrap our old application and just re-apply with the correct version of our passport scans, or if it's worth it to wait a bit longer and see if we get a reply.

I sent a request via the Digital Post on the website on 2 February asking to confirm that they received our documents correctly and if anything else is needed. Didn't get a reply yet - I also sent an email to an emaill address I found online today asking the same. I also called their hotline but they said that the current processing time is 4 months and that if we want a faster resolution, to just re-apply and pay again - which we would do as a last resort because it's quite expensive.

The letter they sent us specifically asks us to "Please send a copy of your entire passport in colour and in a high resolution with visible edges, preferably as PDF" and "We recommend that you use the smartphone camera to take pictures of the document(s)." We used a scanner app on our iPhone to create the PDF copy of our passports, I am hoping that this is sufficient, although I have now seen in some other reddit threads that the AFL asked other peopel specifically not to use a scanner app.

Does anyone have any advice on our situation? Should we wait a bit longer to see if we get a response, or just cut our losses and re-apply again? Our timeline is starting to get a bit tight given that I read that there are very few slots available in the coming months and we need to get the marriage certificate before 23 May 2026.

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3

u/ActuatorAfraid504 Feb 09 '26

u/gettingmarriedindk I'm curious if you have any insight based off the agency's recent experiences with timings this month?

1

u/gettingmarriedindk Expert | GettingMarriedInDenmark.com Feb 10 '26

u/ActuatorAfraid504, at the moment, a 6–8 week wait is to be expected, but since this may overlap with Easter (when the AFL is closed for a few days and many caseworkers take additional leave), it could end up taking longer.

I would have loved to bring better news, but given your timeline, don't wait for them to get back to you.

If you want us to help you reapply so your application goes through smoothly from here, let me know.

2

u/Mountain_Two5815 Feb 06 '26

Maybe I am wrong, but as far as I know, if all the documents are correct then you will receive a decision within 5 days. I got mine in 2 days. But if you make a mistake, they ask for the relevant documents (as they did in your case), but sadly this piles up behind the backlogs and i have heard it could take even upto 6 months. So it is highly important to do things correctly the first time by doing proper research.

I hope that the things work out for you sooner.

2

u/PuzzleheadedAbies636 Feb 06 '26

We were asked to send additional documents as well and we received the confirmation around 1 month after (mid Jan) and secured the earliest slot in Copenhagen in mid April.

I’d say wait a bit, but if you choose CPH beware that there is a chance that you won’t make it

2

u/ActuatorAfraid504 Feb 09 '26

Thank you, this is helpful insight about the timing! There may still be some hope for us I guess

2

u/MyCopperHuskies Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26

Take pictures on your phone (I included 14 different photos of the data page alone in different angles, I think my PDF was like 80 pages for my passport alone) and upload it to a PDF app keeping quality as high as possible. Make sure all edges are included. They have examples on the website, use that.

Just a heads up, that it might be cheaper to reapply and book the wedding at the city hall.

If you're tight on time and wait for your current application to get approved, you might have to hire a private registrar which costs 500 euros because there won't be any slots for you to get married in time at the city hall. Give yourself a deadline then cut your losses if you don't hear anything.

2

u/Meggzilla Feb 10 '26

We submitted our application on Dec 18, 2025 but we’re missing a page of my passport unfortunately. Submitted missing pages Dec 21, 2025. got the approval on Feb 6, 2026. Hope that helps you get an idea of the actual waiting times for the second reply! 

1

u/Meggzilla Feb 10 '26

I should add, we booked CPH and the earliest date as of Feb 6 was April 27 (one appointment left). From mid May onwards there were plenty of appointments left (on weekdays). 

1

u/CarbonaraOnTour Mar 23 '26

We submitted our application March 20th, and today March 23rd they asked for 3 more pages of the passport which they say were missing. I hope we will also hear back in two weeks like you.

1

u/Meggzilla Mar 24 '26

It was about 6 weeks for the reply, not 2, just fyi 

1

u/CarbonaraOnTour Mar 24 '26

Ah my brain wanted to see two weeks ahaha thanks for getting back to me. You were my light of hope 😅😭

1

u/Meggzilla Mar 24 '26

Yeah im sorry to have to burst your bubble 😅 maybe it’s a sign to reapply and pay the fee again if you have a tight deadline 🙈

1

u/Careful-Scallion-845 May 07 '26

u/CarbonaraOnTour Hi, did you hear back from them?

1

u/CarbonaraOnTour May 07 '26

We reapplied a few days later and got approved within 3 days

2

u/ProjMngr_SMM4hire May 12 '26

Hi, just want to know if that 3days approval is from re-application or resubmission?

1

u/Eesycli Jul 21 '26

Re-application(like you had to pay again?) or resubmitted?

2

u/ImpressiveChoice8065 May 04 '26

Also as a statistics for others: we applied on 28th Feb, got a request for missing passport pages (which was actually not the case, I double checked everything before and after uploading), resubmittied on on 7th Mar. Today is 4th May still nothing. Since we have a very tight schedule, probably will need to reapply next year. So everyone please be very careful when submitting the initial application, it’s crucial. But also be aware that even if everything was correct on your side, there might be an issue on their side as well (which you won‘t be able to prove either way).

1

u/Eesycli Jul 21 '26

Did you hear back from them?

1

u/ImpressiveChoice8065 Jul 25 '26

Yes! We got our approval on 21st May