What is an NOIM?.
An NOIM is a Notice of Intended Marriage.
A NOIM is needed for all marriages in Australia, and is a simple process.
Complete and lodge your notice of intended marriage application form with your registered celebrant, at least 1 month before you get married.
After your wedding ceremony your registered celebrant will use that NOIM, and other documents, to register your marriage with the official Departments. BDM (Births, Deaths and Marriages)
How does a NOIM work with a subclass 300 Prospective Marriage Visa application?.
There is an extra step involved when the NOIM is needed for the Prospective Marriage Visa application. The above still applies, but the requirements from the Immigration Department must also be taken into account, and these are:
The NOIM must be completed before the Prospective Marriage Visa [PMV] is granted, normally it will be done at the same time as the PMV is submitted, together with a letter from the Marriage Celebrant. Submission a few months later is allowed, but could delay your application. Without the NOIM and the letter, the PMV cannot be granted.
The NOIM and the Marriage Celebrant’s letter will be submitted to the Immigration department as one of the required documents before your PMV can be assessed.
Some Marriage Celebrants are not aware of the Immigration Department’s policy on this, where it is needed for a visa, but others have special arrangements in place to accommodate these requirements.
This often involves selecting a date, but not fixing it totally, until after the PMV has been granted. The reason for this is that a PMV grant may not come until after the originally intended marriage date. It is common to eventually change that original date, to a more suitable one, after the visa has been granted.
These Marriage Celebrants will normally take a non refundable deposit from you for the ceremony, which also covers their costs in preparing the NOIM and letter, for immigration. I have seen figures of $110 mentioned.
Evidence of intention to marry for Immigration.
This is normally a letter from an authorised marriage celebrant or registry office on official letterhead indicating that a Notice of Intended Marriage has been lodged in Australia.
The letter must state a specific wedding date or date range and venue of the ceremony.
It is in your interest that the intended date of marriage should be 9 to 12 months from the application date to allow for the visa processing time.
If the letter contains all the required information from the NOIM, this may be sufficient on its own, for Immigration, without a copy of the NOIM. However, including a copy of the actual NOIM with the letter, does appear to be the best option, and can avoid delays in the visa processing.
You can lodge your NOIM with just one party’s signature, but the other party must sign it in the presence of the marriage celebrant before the marriage is solemnised.
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