6 Common Mistakes Made In Filling Out The Notice of Intended Marriage

The Notice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) can be a difficult form to fill out. You can download the latest NOIM form here.

Check out the latest NOIM, issued by the Attorney-General’s Department, that applies from 1 September 2021.

And there are some common mistakes that are made on a regular basis while completing a NOIM.

Here’s how to avoid making them.

Question 1

You are required to choose either Partner, Bride, or Groom. Tick only one of these. Whilst many people will happily tick one of these terms, for some people the terms make them uncomfortable. Many LGBTIQ⁺people don’t relate to any of them. But just tick one and move on. And it’s completely ok for anyone to tick any of these terms – you don’t have to be a woman to tick ‘Bride’, for example.

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Questions 2 and 3

Family name and given names. ‘Family name’ means your last name. “Given names” means your first name and any other names. Your name should be as it appears in your identifying document – that is, your passport or birth certificate and driver’s licence. Your celebrant will be happy to call you by any other name throughout your marriage ceremony – for example, if your first name is Edward but everyone calls you Ed, then that’s fine. But your celebrant will need to say your full name once sometime during the ceremony.

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Question 4

You don’t have to complete Question 4 about your ‘gender’. It’s optional. And, whilst the NOIM doesn’t acknowledge that some people are neither female nor male nor non-binary, you can exercise your option to not complete it at all. It’s ok to do that.

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Question 7

Conjugal status – this means, whether you’ve been married and divorced, or married and your partner has died, or whether you’ve never been married. If you’ve never been married, the words you need to insert in question 7 on the Notice are “never validly married”. And if you’ve been divorced or widowed, you’ll need to provide evidence of that to your celebrant.

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If your passport doesn’t contain your city or town, or if you’re using your birth certificate and driver’s license as your identifying documents, then you need to show them to your celebrant…

– Bronte Price

Question 8

Birthplace – at question 8, you need to put the same birthplace that appears on your passport, if you’re using that as your identifying document. If your passport doesn’t include the city or town where you were born, or if you’re using your birth certificate and driver’s licence as your identifying documents, then you need to show them to your celebrant – and write the relevant birthplace on the Notice.

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Questions 11 – 14

Either of your parents can be Parent 1 and Parent 2. At question 11, write parent one’s current full name – that is, the first name, any middle names, and last name they currently use. If you don’t know the current name of your parent 1, write ‘unknown‘. At question 12, write parent one’s full name – first name, any middle names, and last name that they were given at birth. If you don’t know the birth name of your parent 1, write ‘unknown‘. At question 13, write parent two’s current full name – that is, the first name, any middle names, and last name they currently use. If you don’t know the current name of your parent 2, write ‘unknown‘. At question 14, write parent two’s full name – first name, any middle names, and last name that they were given at birth. If you don’t know the birth name of your parent 2, write ‘unknown‘.