Registering

Giving notice 

In order to register, each civil partner must have resided in England and Wales for at least 7 days prior to giving notice. The notice of the proposed partnership is given to the Registration Authority where you live. The notice will need to be signed by the proposed civil partners in the presence of a Registrar. Once notice has been given to a Registrar, it must be publicised both in the registration authority’s area (in which the registration is to take place), and in the registration authority area in which both parties live. The parties then need to wait 15 days after notice has been given.

The Registrar is then under a duty, at the request of one or both of the proposed civil partners, to issue a Civil Partnership Schedule. The civil partners then have 12 months to sign the Civil Partnership document.

A Civil Partnership is then formed when two people have signed the Civil Partnership document in the presence of each other, the Registrar and two witnesses.

Blessings

Because the Civil Partnership ceremony is non–religious, many people want to get their partnership blessed. If you can find a gay-friendly religious leader who will do the blessing, this must take place after the ceremony.

Some Gay friendly religious and spiritual links:

• Blackpool LGBT Christian Fellowship
  07955 597 771
• Liverpool L&G Christian Movement
  01695 423 445
• Metropolitan Community Church - Manchester
  0161 249 0649
• Quest Manchester
  07950 543 776 or 07947 368 713
• Manchester L&G Christian Movement
  0161 652 2009
• Manchester Christian Group
  07743 476 191