Living in Iceland · Family

Family & relationships

Marriage, partners from outside the EEA, children, divorce, custody. The rules are mostly fair: the paperwork is what punishes the unprepared.

Everything below is taken from Icelandic official sources: Ísland.is, Útlendingastofnun (Directorate of Immigration), Þjóðskrá (Registers Iceland) and Sýslumenn (District Commissioners). Where a rule depends on your own case, we say so instead of guessing. If the official page and this page ever disagree, the official page wins.

Last verified 4 August 2026 · island.is, utl.is, skra.is, syslumenn.is

Your situations, one by one

You want to get married in Iceland

What actually happens: Before anyone can marry you, an official check has to confirm that you are both legally free to marry. This is the könnunarvottorð, a certificate of no impediment. The check is handled nationally by the District Commissioner in Vestmannaeyjar. If you both have a kennitala, an electronic certificate (auðkenni) and a registered legal domicile in Iceland, you can apply for it online on Ísland.is, and the application also collects the supporting documents. Two witnesses (svaramenn) must be named and must sign electronically before the application is processed.
What to do: Start on the marriage page on Ísland.is well before your planned date. If you do not have legal domicile in Iceland, you must bring a certificate of marital status from the country where you are registered. The certificate of no impediment is issued to your Ísland.is mailbox, and it is your job to hand it to the person performing the ceremony. Booking the ceremony itself is a separate step: contact the officiant directly.
The common trap: Two traps. First, giving an estimated wedding date in the application and assuming that booked the wedding: it did not. Second, foreign documents going stale. A foreign certificate of marital status is only accepted while it is recent, and the Icelandic marital status certificate is valid for a limited window, so do not collect papers months in advance.

You live together but are not married (sambúð)

What actually happens: You can register cohabitation with Þjóðskrá if you share the same legal domicile, are not married, and your marital status is registered. Registration is not marriage. There is no single comprehensive law on registered cohabitation in Iceland, so what it gives you depends on the subject: it can affect tax (using a partner's personal tax credit), and it affects how Þjóðskrá determines paternity and custody of a child.
What to do: One partner fills in the registration and the other submits a consent form: Registering cohabitation (Ísland.is). Registration takes effect from the date the request is submitted, not from the date you actually moved in together.
The common trap: If you are a foreign national whose marital status is recorded as unknown, Þjóðskrá cannot register your cohabitation at all until you hand in an official marital status certificate from your home country. Foreign certificates older than six months are not accepted. Fix this early, it silently blocks registration, paternity and several benefits.

You want to bring a spouse or partner from outside the EEA

What actually happens: This is a residence permit for spouse, granted under Article 70 of the Act on Foreign Nationals. It covers married couples and cohabiting partners. Both of you are assessed: the applicant must prove identity with a passport, show secure means of support, health insurance and a criminal record certificate. On top of that: you must both have been 18 or older when you married or started living together, you must live at the same registered address in Iceland, and if you apply on the basis of cohabitation you must have lived together for at least one year before applying. The person already in Iceland must consent, and must themselves belong to a group that has the right to family reunification.
What to do: Read the requirements list first, not the form: Residence permit for spouse: requirements (Ísland.is). Applications are paper only, sent by post or handed in at Útlendingastofnun in Kópavogur, or at a District Commissioner's office outside the capital area. The processing fee has to be paid before you submit, and the receipt goes in with the application. If your spouse in Iceland is an EEA/EFTA citizen, do not use this route at all: apply instead for a residence card for a family member of an EEA/EFTA citizen.
The common trap: Sending an application without the payment receipt. An unpaid application is returned to you, and the clock starts again. Also note the fee is not refunded if you withdraw the application.

You are not sure who counts as 'family' for reunification

What actually happens: Family reunification in Iceland is limited to the nuclear family. Under the Act on Foreign Nationals the closest relatives are: spouses, cohabiting partners, children under 18 in your custody and provided for by you, and parents aged 67 or older. Adult siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins and parents under 67 are not entitled to a permit on family grounds. Separately, the person in Iceland must hold a status that carries the right: Icelandic and Nordic citizens, holders of a permanent residence permit, and several temporary permit categories (qualified specialist, shortage of labour, athlete, service contract, student, spouse or cohabiting partner, international protection, humanitarian grounds, special ties).
What to do: Check your own category before spending money on documents: Check if you need a residence permit (Ísland.is). For children, the route is a residence permit for children; for older parents, a permit for parents aged 67 or older.
The common trap: Assuming that because you can support a relative financially, they qualify. Money is not the test here, the relationship category is. Unaccompanied children in Iceland on international protection are the one special case: they may be reunited with parents regardless of the parents' age, and with unmarried siblings under 18.

You have a baby in Iceland

What actually happens: The birth is notified to Þjóðskrá, and every child is first linked to the mother's kennitala. Naming the child is a separate form from establishing paternity. If the mother is registered as married to, or in registered cohabitation with, the declared father, he is recorded as the father automatically under the Children's Act no. 76/2003. If she is not, paternity has to be acknowledged: the mother makes a statement and the father signs an acknowledgement in front of two witnesses aged 18 or over.
What to do: Handle paternity through Acknowledgements of paternity (Ísland.is) and register the name on the separate Þjóðskrá form. If either parent or a witness has no kennitala, include a passport copy. Custody and child support are not settled by this form: those go to the District Commissioner.
The common trap: Leaving the mother's marital status unregistered. If Þjóðskrá has her status as unknown, paternity cannot be established at all until a marital status certificate from her home country is submitted. Þjóðskrá notifies the District Commissioner about children over six months old whose paternity is still not established, so this does not quietly go away.

You are pregnant and wondering what you are entitled to

What actually happens: Each parent has a right to six months of parental leave, twelve months in total for two parents. To receive payments from the parental leave fund you must have worked in Iceland continuously for the six months before the birth, at least 25% of full time each month. Payments are calculated as a share of your average earnings, with a floor and a ceiling set in law. Parents who are studying, out of the labour market, or working less than 25% may instead be entitled to a parental grant. Parental leave also counts towards length of service for other work rights, and you are protected from termination because of it.
What to do: Start at Having a baby (Ísland.is) and apply through Application for parental leave. The site has an official calculator: use it rather than trusting figures repeated in Facebook groups. Prenatal care with a midwife at your healthcare centre starts with a phone consultation soon after the pregnancy is confirmed.
The common trap: Applying late, and assuming a new job in Iceland automatically qualifies you. The six-month continuous work condition before the birth is what decides whether you are on paid leave from the fund or on a grant, and people who moved to Iceland mid pregnancy often discover this only at the end.

Your marriage is ending

What actually happens: In Iceland you normally begin with a legal separation (skilnaður að borði og sæng), applied for jointly or separately at the District Commissioner. Divorce can be applied for six months after the legal separation. If you have children together, you cannot simply file paperwork: an agreement on custody, the child's legal residence and child support has to be made with the District Commissioner, who calls the parents to a meeting or an online hearing. Joint custody is the normal outcome for parents who divorce.
What to do: Go to syslumenn.is for the separation and divorce process, and prepare for the custody conversation before the meeting rather than during it. Update Þjóðskrá afterwards: your marital status affects tax, benefits and future certificates.
The common trap: Not realising what this does to immigration status. If your residence permit is based on marriage, a divorce ends the ground it stands on, and you must apply for a permit on another basis if you want to stay. Check with Útlendingastofnun before, not after, the divorce is registered.

You are separating and there are children

What actually happens: A child has one registered legal residence. The parent the child lives with can claim child support (meðlag) from the other parent. Child support is treated as the child's right, not the parent's, and it is meant for food, clothing and housing. Parents can agree to handle payment between themselves, or ask Tryggingastofnun to act as intermediary so the parent with the child is paid even when the other parent does not pay on time. Parents who were never married or registered as cohabiting can also make a child support agreement.
What to do: Make the agreement formal at the District Commissioner (syslumenn.is) rather than verbally, and read the divorce and children pages on Ísland.is. If you need the payment to be reliable, ask about Tryggingastofnun as intermediary at tr.is.
The common trap: Informal deals made in a difficult month. An unregistered arrangement is very hard to enforce later, and it is the child who loses the money, not the adult who broke the promise.

You need a certificate to prove your family situation

What actually happens: Þjóðskrá issues certificates of marital status, marriage certificates and certificates of marital history. These are what embassies, immigration authorities and foreign registries actually ask for. Note the difference: a certificate of marital status shows only your current status; a certificate of marital history lists the changes over time, including former spouses.
What to do: Order from Þjóðskrá: marital status and cohabitation. Electronic certificates arrive in your Ísland.is mailbox and are fully equivalent to paper ones, which means you can forward them. If you are marrying in Iceland and have already applied for the electronic check of marriage conditions, the Þjóðskrá certificates are already included: do not order them twice.
The common trap: Ordering the wrong certificate the week before a deadline. Foreign authorities often want the marital history, and these documents have processing time and, frequently, an apostille step after that.