Information on birth registration

Registration of your child's birth is not obligatory if he or she has British citizenship. However we do recommend registration of the birth as this will provide your child with proof that he or she is a British citizen and will act as evidence when applying for a British passport.

A consular birth certificate is the only Birth Certificate issued by the British Goverment that states the holder is a British Citizen and under which section of the relevant Nationality Act. Please note similar Birth Certificates issued in the United Kingdom do not have these features. A Birth Certificate in the United Kingdom does not confer an its holder Birth Nationality.

A child may be a British citizen by birth (for example by being born in the UK), or by descent (for example one of the parents was born in the UK and the child was born overseas after 1 January 1983) regardless of Consular birth registration. The staff at the Consular Section will be able to tell you whether or not your child is a British citizen and whether that is by birth or descent.

If you wish to register your child's birth you should provide all the following documents:

-Completed application form Birth Registration Form

-Full (or long) birth certificate of the British parent

-The parent's marriage certificate

-The child's Israeli birth certificate from the Ministry of Interior. If the child was born in the West Bank or Gaza you should provide a Palestinian Authority birth certificate

All these documents must be original documents, not photocopies. If one or more of the documents is not in English you should provide a correct translation. If you cannot do this the Consular Section can do it for you, but there will be an additional charge and delay for this service.

Information on consular marriage

Under certain circumstances it is possible for the British Consulate to perform a marriage ceremony. For us to do this all of the following conditions must be fulfilled:

1. One of the parties must be a British Citizen
We will need to see the original of the British passport.

2. Neither party can be Jewish or Moslem
If either of you are Jewish then we cannot perform the marriage ceremony as the Israeli authorities would object on the grounds that there are adequate local facilities. If either of you is Moslem we cannot perform the ceremony without taking further advice from the Foreign Office in London as the marriage would be considered potentially polygamous.

3. Local churches must confirm that they will not conduct the ceremony
We would need confirmation from St George's Anglican Cathedral, St Andrew's Scottish Church and Christ Church Jaffa Gate that they would not be prepared to conduct the ceremony.

4. The Consular marriage ceremony must be recognised in the country of each person's domicile.
If you can show that your long-term home is the UK (property ownership, bank accounts etc) then you might have satisfied this, but we might ask you to complete a domicile questionnaire so that we can be sure. We will give you this questionnaire if we consider it necessary. If you are not a British Citizen we will need a letter from the Consul of your country stating that a marriage ceremony performed at the British Consulate would be considered legal and valid in that country. In most cases details of a marriage ceremony to be performed by the Consulate where one of the parties is not a British Citizen will have to be submitted to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London for approval. This can take several weeks.

5. Both parties must have reached the age of 16.
Additionally, if either party is under 18 the necessary consents or the dispensation of the Secretary of State must have been obtained.

6. Both parties must have the capacity under the law of the country in which each is domiciled to marry each other.
If either the British Government or in the case of someone who is not a British Citizen, the government of his or her country, considers that you are already married (in other words you have been through another form of ceremony somewhere) then we couldn't perform the ceremony, at least not without further checks. This condition also covers the prohibited degrees of relationship, so you can't marry your brother, father, sister etc.

7. The local authorities do not object to the marriage being performed.
In general this means that if you already live here, or propose to do so, you would have to obtain a letter from an Israeli lawyer stating that the marriage would be recognised by the Israeli authorities. It is likely that for this recognition to take place the Israeli Ministry of Interior or the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs would have to stamp the back of the marriage certificate to show they have recognised it as a valid marriage under Israeli law. If you live in the West Bank or Gaza we would need a letter from a Palestinian lawyer stating that the Palestinian Authority would recognise the marriage.

8. All Consular fees must have been paid before the ceremony can be conducted.
The fees for Receiving a Notice of Marriage, Solemnising a Marriage and providing a Certified Copy of the the Entry in the Marriage Register are shown on the Consular Fees page of this web site.

Notice Period: Once we are satisfied that all of the above conditions have been met the countdown to the ceremony can begin. You must first show the Consul that you have been resident within the Consular District of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip for 7 clear days.

You then give the Consul written notice of your intended marriage on a form we provide. This Notice of Marriage is then displayed at the Consulate for 14 clear days.

Once this 14 days has been completed the marriage must be performed within 90 days of the date of giving notice (unless, of course, you decide not to proceed with the ceremony).

The Marriage Ceremony

The ceremony can be performed at the Consulate on any day of the week, but it must be performed between the hours of 8am and 6pm. The ceremony can be performed by the Consul-General, Deputy Consul-General or HM Consul and we would normally try to use the garden of the Consul-General's Residence. However, this is his private home and performing the ceremony there is subject to his agreement.

Within reason you can you can invite as many people as you wish to attend the ceremony, but we need to know approximate numbers in advance and reserve the right to restrict the numbers attending. All visitors to the Consulate will have their bags searched on arrival.

Flowers (but not gifts) can be delivered to the Consulate on the day of the wedding.

You will need to have two witnesses and their names must be given to the Consul before the day of the wedding.

The ceremony itself is fairly short, but we aim to make the occasion as memorable as possible.


If you wish to be married at the Consulate and you think you might be able to fulfil all the conditions listed above, we suggest that you contact the Consul at the address below in order to discuss this further.

Vice Consul (Consular)
British Consulate-General
Telephone: ++972 (0) 2 541 4100
Fax: ++972 (0) 2 532 2368
Email: britain.jerusalem@fco.gov.uk