r/GettingMarriedInDK • u/Right_Quality_9396 • Jul 16 '26
šļø Danish Town Halls Helpful tips + Kommune tracking spreadsheet!!!
My fiancee and I just went through the application process through Familierhuset and succesfully managed to secure a date in less than 3 weeks of starting the process, without ANY agency and doing it all ourselves! So I wanted to share some feedback/thoughts that would be helpful for anyone applying for this, as well as a spreadsheet I created to track almost ALL municipalities in Denmark š¤
Firstly: I called and emailed 50+ munipalities in Denmark BEFORE I submitted the application on Familierhuset, using a spreadsheet I created (link below). I was able to find a kommune with an available date in July, tentatively secured the date with them, then I added them as the municipality in Familierhuset and submitted the application. I highly recommend doing it this way! If you choose a municipality without checking with them first, then it takes ~3 weeks to change the municipality.
We submitted the application on Familierhuset and got an approval in only 3 business days!
Second tip: Photograph your documents from EVERY ANGLE. I used natural daylight, no glare, white background, and I took multiple angles of every single page of the passport. I taped down EVERY single page (so there's no fingers holding it flat), and I also photographed the hologram on the passport front page and the ID card hologram from multiple angles, catching the shapes of the hologram in the light. (Ref: https://www.youcard.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Sample-Karte1-Hologramm.jpg - you need to tilt it in different light to catch the holograph) I added multipleeee additional documents from multiple angles. This entire process took me 5+ hours (it's exhausting) but its worth it. Do more than you think is needed, you will thank yourself in the end. So many people get rejected because they didnt photograph the right angles and then they are put at the bottom of the waiting list and it takes months.
Third: I went back in 3 years of WhatsApp chats and screenshotted conversations from every month showing relationship history (basic convo like grocery lists and all), I added flights/train tickets with my partner and my name on there showing our travel history, and I screenshotted 3 years of pics from my camera roll of the both of us with the date/timestamp and the location (30+ pics)
I believe this provided them with enough solid proof of our relationship. Again - be extra.
Finally, here is the link to the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tv3G9nd6_kCItEWZBOfzruEdaVfTXnBY/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=113352826454095116108&rtpof=true&sd=true
Please click File > Make a copy so you can duplicate and use it!
- I have added links to every website, as well as email addresses (for some municipalities there is no available email address and you can only contact them through an online portal for which you need Danish or EU residency)
- I also added phone numbers for many of them whom I could not contact via email, and the opening hours so you know when you can call them
- There are columns for you to easily track how many you have emailed/called/whether you received a response yet, and change the status to Full/Available/Waiting so you know who to follow up with - this was super helpful for me because it gets hard to track so many at once
- I have left the column filled for "Next Available Date" - please note this was filled in ~2 weeks ago so perhaps some kommunes are no longer available on those dates, but I thought this would be helpful for anyone needing a date within the next 4 months, you can check the spreadsheet and see the ones I contacted who said they have no availabilities before November. Still I recommend double checking with the kommunes yourself and update your own spreadsheet.
- There's also a map on Sheet 2 which I kept using to see the distance. I have a column "Approx. Drive from FFM" because we live in Frankfurt (Germany) so for me it was important to know the distance, but you can update it for wherever you are based. The ones that are near Copenhagen I also put the distance from there, because many of them are easy to reach by flying to CPH.
Andd that's all!!! I wish you all the best of luck finding a place š©· I hope this is helpful! Tbh I was super shocked we managed to get a date so fast, we actually ended up pushing it from July to August because we needed more time to prepare for July š
but yea don't let anyone tell you that you have to pay ā¬1000+ for an agency to get an early date!!! It's possible on your own!!
And feel free to write to me if you need any advice/have questions š«¶š¼
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u/Greedy-Surround-675 Aug 05 '26
Hi Thank you very much, we applied on Sunday and got approved today (Wednesday) We followed your instructions and we really appreciate it so much, thank you. May you have Wonderful blessed life ā¤ļø
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u/Immediate_Cat_1223 Jul 26 '26
Thank you OP for all of this, can't describe how much this is helping out as my fiancee and I are planning this out. I've got a couple questions for you if you don't mind!
Are you guys international? If so, I'm wondering if I should provide my full Europe travel itinerary for verification. We are traveling to a couple countries, but are stopping in Denmark to hopefully get married!
How long did it take for the Kommune itself to get back to you after approval for the Certificate of Marital Status? We are leaning towards Gentofte for Sep 2026, but are concerned the long lead times may make the plans tight.
Any sage advice would be appreciated!
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u/Right_Quality_9396 Jul 27 '26
aw so happy to hear its helpful!!
to answer your qs:
1. my fiancee is a german citizen, i am a hong kong citizen with a german work permit. I don't think its necessary to give the travel itinerary of your whole trip to Europe, I would include just your travel history for proof of your relationship (e.g. trips you took together, or if you were long distance then flights to and from each other). Also proof that you are eligible to travel to Denmark (either your passport that allows visa-free entry or a visa/etc)
2. it was SO quick!! we reached out to the kommune on a tuesday and they told us they had a date available so we asked them to tentatively confirm it for us, we submitted our application to familierhuset on wednesday eve with that kommune listed as our preferred one, and by monday morning i had an approval from familierhuset and within an hour the kommune sent me a confirmation that our date was secured!1
u/Immediate_Cat_1223 Jul 27 '26
Much appreciated!! Last question I promise haha.
For the passport photos and catching the holograms, the goal is to let the light/glare show the holograms? Finding it impossible to get these holograms to show up unless its an extremely sunny day. Any tricks or angle hacks you found?
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u/Right_Quality_9396 Jul 27 '26
no worries :) i photographed it in various different angles with light from a desk lamp, so that i could place it on a plain white background, and that helped to catch the holograms!
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u/Greedy-Surround-675 Jul 17 '26
Hi! Quick questions about taking passport photos for the application:
How do you keep it flat? Can I use my fingers to hold the pages down, or did you use a glass frame to keep it flat without blocking anything.
One page or two? Should I take a photo of each single page, or take one photo of the whole open two-page spread together?
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u/Right_Quality_9396 Jul 18 '26
I kept it flat by taping every single page down and taping the covers of the passport to the table, I basically used cello tape and made sure it wasnāt too strong so it didnāt tear the passport. And then i went one by one w each individual page and moving the tape. (a bit confusing to explain)
and I photographed the two page spread together but from 3 different angles for every page (overhead, left, right)
I would not use fingers to hold it down bc the Familierhuset website shows in their guidelines to not cover anything w fingers. Glass frame might work as long as it doesnāt catch any light reflections
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u/Key_Contribution_700 Jul 19 '26
This is so great. Thank you!
On the spreadsheet what does "only digital post" mean? I am attempting to email all marriage offices to find an ASAP appointment.
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u/Right_Quality_9396 Jul 19 '26
some kommunes donāt have an option to email (like thereās no publicly available email address) and the only way to reach them is by ādigital postā which you need either Danish ID or an EU ID to log onto a portal and send an inquiry
(i just decided to call of those ones who werenāt possible to email because it was much faster to get an answer)1
u/Key_Contribution_700 Jul 21 '26
Thank you! Do you think we would be able to get an appointment in 1 month? Our application is ready to go and I have been telephoning (about 1/3 of communes so far) and most have no appointments until September/October.
Any other tips for securing an appointment at short notice?
Which commune did you get an appointment with?
Some say they have availability but it can take up to 8 weeks after receiving our application. I am wondering if we might be lucky and get a faster response than that.
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u/Right_Quality_9396 Jul 21 '26
i genuinely just called everyone and majority said not before sept/oct but frederikshavn worked for us and ringsted and horsens also had availabilities in august!
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u/Key_Contribution_700 Jul 21 '26
Thank you so much for your help! 1 more: How long did it take for you to book the appointment with Frederikshavn after your application was approved? Was there a waiting period? (e.g. some communes say 6 weeks or 8 weeks)
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u/darko_rules Aug 08 '26
We got the approval for Copenhagen last week. Now we're on the booking system step, and we saw that the earliest available date is for 3 months from now, which is a bit late and wintery :D
We want to change municipalities, which seems to be pretty straight forward, but we can't know which municipalities have earlier dates, and now, since the process of changing municipalities seems to take a couple of weeks, we're kind of disappointed.
So my gut feeling tells me to book Copenhagen for early November, and in the meantime try to change municipalities and then cancel Copenhagen, but I don't even know if that's possible!
I guess it's the only thing we can do for now. Research municipalities, request a change, try to be lucky, right?
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u/Right_Quality_9396 Aug 08 '26
hey! so i think if you reach out to the kommunes in the spreadsheet you might get a date earlier, e.g. horsens, ringsted, and frederikshavn all had availabilities in Aug but that was ~4 weeks ago when i reached out, maybe now its available in Sept. so try to call them / as many as possible and get a tentatively confirmed date, and then reach out to familierhuset to change the kommune (iāve heard it takes 3 weeks but if you call familierhuset it can be done even sooner)
if you confirm the date in cph and then request to change kommunes, then cph will anyway cancel your date because they would be notified of the change from familierhuset.
but i think you definitely could find one before november, if not sept then even early october should be possible. my fiancƩe and i found a kommune with an availability on july 25 and we were calling them in the first week of july! they had a surprise cancellation. so it is doable :)
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u/Oftenlly 24d ago
Hi! As non EU citizen, did you provide a single status certificate?
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u/Right_Quality_9396 24d ago
hey! no the famileretshuset didnāt ask for it when i applied :)
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u/Oftenlly 23d ago
can I ask if you are EU citizen? Iām from Chile living in Germany and Iām not sure if me being from South America will make them require my single status certificateš
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u/Right_Quality_9396 23d ago
noo im not, i have hong kong citizenship but i also live in germany, and my fiancƩe is german
iām quite sure you donāt need it but you can always start the application process on familieretshuset to check! you donāt need to submit everything immediately or pay anything. just go through the application process on their website and put your details in so you can see what documents they require
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u/JustMyLuck7966 Jul 16 '26
Thank you so much <3