By Anastasia Miliou, Attorney at the Supreme Courts
Greek women who live and work abroad choose to build their personal and family life there. Many marriages of Greek women are conducted abroad and must then be registered with the Greek Special Registry Office and the municipal register to which each woman belongs.
It is during this registration process that numerous problems arise, which are not dealt with immediately but later on, causing obstacles and confusion.
Let’s take things from the beginning. If a Greek woman decides to marry a foreigner and the marriage takes place abroad, she may declare on the foreign marriage certificate that she wishes to take her husband’s surname, something that is common abroad. That is, what was formerly the case in Greece still applies in nearly all European countries, so that after the marriage the entire family—spouses and children—carry the same surname. If the Greek woman also obtains a second nationality after the marriage, she practically acquires a new passport with her husband’s surname. If, subsequently, she has children who are born abroad, then on their birth certificates, the surname of the Greek mother will be that of her husband.
At some point, however, the time comes when the Greek wife decides to register the marriage and the births of her children in Greece. There are cases where registrations are done simultaneously and others where the marriage has already been registered with the Special Registry Office and the municipal register, and an attempt is then made to register the children’s births.
It is then that it becomes apparent there is a problem with the surname of the Greek wife. Regardless of whether the marriage was performed abroad and the law of the husband’s nationality and the couple’s country of residence applied, in Greece the registration of the marriage follows Greek law. This stipulates that the Greek woman either retains her surname after marriage or, upon declaration, ADDS the husband’s surname to her own. The change of surname and exclusive adoption of the husband’s surname was abolished in the early 1980s.
Therefore, in the Greek marriage certificate that will be registered with the Special Registry Office, the Greek woman will retain her paternal surname and this will also be used to open her new family record in the municipality where she is registered.
When she then submits the birth certificate of her child, the Special Registry Office will not proceed with the registration because the mother’s details on the child’s birth certificate and the marriage certificate will not match. That is, the mother of the child on the birth certificate will bear a different surname to that of the Greek woman who married the child’s father.
So, what should Greek women who marry abroad do?
One option is to retain their Greek paternal surname after marriage, even abroad, and to be known everywhere by it.
The second is to explicitly declare on the foreign marriage certificate that, after marriage, they wish to add their husband’s surname to their own. Care must be taken here because, in Greek documents, the husband’s surname will follow the paternal surname. Therefore, the same order must be used on the foreign marriage certificate; otherwise, there will again be no identity match, which the Registry Office requires in order to register the children’s births.
The third option, for wives who truly wish to take their husband’s surname, is to ensure they declare this wish not only on the foreign marriage certificate but also on the Greek certificate at the Greek Consulate. This declaration must be made even if the surname does not change.
Consulates are often reluctant to record this declaration, but they are, in fact, obliged to register such a note. Greek women should insist on this point.
Next, an application must be made to a Greek court to recognise the validity of the foreign law which grants the Greek woman the right to adopt her husband’s surname. After the decision is issued, the Greek woman will be able to register her marriage with the Special Registry Office and adopt her husband’s surname, which will also be changed on her birth certificate and family register. This means that both her Greek ID and Greek passport will fully match her foreign certificates.
Anastasia C. Miliou is an Attorney at Law at the Supreme Courts with experience in international law and a large clientele in both Greece and abroad. Her telephone number is 6945028153. If you would like questions answered as part of her articles in English online, you can e-mail her at natmil@otenet.gr or visit www.legalaction.gr
