Living in Iceland · Family

Family & relationships

Marriage, partners from outside the EEA, children, divorce and custody. The rules here are mostly fair. It is the paperwork that punishes people who are not ready for it.

Everything below comes from official Icelandic sources: Ísland.is, Útlendingastofnun (the Directorate of Immigration), Þjóðskrá (Registers Iceland) and Sýslumenn (the 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 is right.

Last verified 29 August 2026 · island.is, utl.is, skra.is, syslumenn.is

Are the parents separated, or were you never a couple? Paternity, custody, where the child lives, contact and child support have their own page: Parents separated, or never together.

New here and looking for other parents or friends? See Where to meet people.

Are you worried about child protection (barnavernd) and not about marriage or divorce? That has its own page: Child protection in Iceland.

Your situations, one by one

You want to get married in Iceland

What actually happens: Before anyone can marry you, an official check must show that you are both free to marry. The paper that proves this is called a könnunarvottorð (say: KUN-nun-ar-vot-torth, a certificate that there is nothing stopping the marriage). The check is done for the whole country by the District Commissioner in Vestmannaeyjar. If you both have a kennitala (personal ID number), an electronic ID (rafræn skilríki, say: RAV-ryen SKIL-ree-kee) and a registered home address in Iceland, you can apply online on Ísland.is, and the same form collects your documents. You must also name two witnesses (svaramenn, say: SVAR-a-men), and they must sign electronically before the application is dealt with.
What to do: Start on the marriage page on Ísland.is well before the date you want. If you do not have a registered home address in Iceland, bring a paper from the country where you are registered that shows whether you are married. The Icelandic certificate arrives in your Ísland.is mailbox, and it is your job to give it to the person who will marry you. Booking the ceremony is a separate step: contact that person yourself.
The common trap: Two traps. First, writing a rough wedding date in the application and thinking that booked the wedding. It did not. Second, old papers. A foreign paper about your marital status is only accepted while it is recent, and the Icelandic certificate is also only good for a short time. Do not collect papers months in advance.

You live together but are not married (sambúð)

What actually happens: Sambúð (say: SAM-booth) means living together as a couple. You can register it with Þjóðskrá if you share the same registered home address, you are not married, and your marital status is recorded. Registering is not the same as marrying. Iceland has no single law that covers it, so what it gives you depends on the subject. It can change your tax (you may use part of your partner's tax credit), and it changes how Þjóðskrá decides who the father of a child is and who has custody.
What to do: One partner fills in the form and the other sends a consent form: Registering cohabitation (Ísland.is). It starts from the day you send the request, not from the day you actually moved in together.
The common trap: If you are a foreign citizen and Þjóðskrá has your marital status as unknown, they cannot register you as living together at all until you hand in an official paper from your home country showing your marital status. Foreign papers older than six months are not accepted. Sort this out early. It quietly blocks registration, fatherhood and several benefits.

You want to bring a husband, wife or partner from outside the EEA

What actually happens: This is a residence permit for a spouse, under Article 70 of the Act on Foreign Nationals. It covers married couples and partners who live together. Both of you are checked. The person applying must prove who they are with a passport, and show they can be supported, have health insurance, and have a police 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 because you live together, you must have lived together for at least one year first. The person already in Iceland must agree, and must belong to a group that has the right to bring family.
What to do: Read the list of requirements before you touch the form: Residence permit for spouse: requirements (Ísland.is). Applications are on paper only. Send them by post, or hand them in at Útlendingastofnun in Kópavogur, or at a District Commissioner's office outside the capital area. Pay the fee before you send it, and put the receipt in with the application. If your husband or wife in Iceland is an EEA or EFTA citizen, do not use this route at all. Apply instead for a residence card for a family member of an EEA or EFTA citizen.
The common trap: Sending the application without the payment receipt. An unpaid application is sent back to you and you start again. Also, the fee is not returned if you pull the application back.

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

What actually happens: In Iceland, bringing family means only the closest family. Under the Act on Foreign Nationals that is: husbands and wives, partners you live with, children under 18 in your custody who you support, and parents aged 67 or older. Grown-up brothers and sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins and parents under 67 do not have a right to a permit as family. The person in Iceland must also hold the right kind of status: Icelandic and Nordic citizens, people with a permanent residence permit, and several kinds of temporary permit (specialist, shortage of workers, athlete, service contract, student, spouse or partner, international protection, humanitarian grounds, special ties).
What to do: Check your own group before you spend 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: Thinking that because you can pay for a relative, they qualify. Money is not the test. The family link is. There is one special case: children in Iceland alone under international protection may be joined by their parents whatever the parents' age, and by unmarried brothers and sisters under 18.

You have a baby in Iceland

What actually happens: The birth is reported to Þjóðskrá, and at first every child is linked to the mother's kennitala. Giving the child a name is a different form from saying who the father is. If the mother is registered as married to the father, or registered as living with him, he is written down as the father automatically, under the Children's Act no. 76/2003. If she is not, fatherhood must be acknowledged: the mother makes a statement and the father signs, in front of two witnesses aged 18 or over.
What to do: Do the fatherhood part through Acknowledgements of paternity (Ísland.is) and register the name on the separate Þjóðskrá form. If a parent or a witness has no kennitala, add a copy of their passport. 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 it as unknown, fatherhood cannot be settled at all until she sends a marital status paper from her home country. Þjóðskrá tells the District Commissioner about children over six months old who still have no registered father, so it does not quietly go away.

You are pregnant and want to know what you get

What actually happens: Each parent has the right to six months of parental leave, so twelve months in total for two parents. To be paid by the parental leave fund you must have worked in Iceland without a break for the six months before the birth, at least 25% of full time in each of those months. The payment is a share of your average pay, with a lowest and a highest amount set in law. Parents who are studying, not working, or working less than 25% may get a parental grant instead. Parental leave also counts as time in the job for other work rights, and you cannot be dismissed for taking 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 numbers people repeat in Facebook groups. Care during pregnancy with a midwife at your health centre begins with a phone call soon after the pregnancy is confirmed.
The common trap: Applying late, and thinking a new job in Iceland is enough. The rule about six months of work without a break before the birth is what decides whether you are paid from the fund or given a grant. People who moved here while pregnant often find this out only at the end.

Your marriage is ending

What actually happens: In Iceland a divorce usually comes in two steps. First you apply for a legal separation (skilnaður að borði og sæng, say: SKIL-na-thur ath BOR-thi og SIGN, living apart in law but still married). You apply at the District Commissioner (Sýslumaður), together or alone. After that you can apply for the full divorce (lögskilnaður, say: LUHG-skil-na-thur). If you both agree, you can apply six months after the separation. If only one of you wants it, the wait is longer. Ask the District Commissioner which wait applies to you. If you have children together, papers alone are not enough. You must also settle custody, where the child lives, and child support, and the office calls the parents to a meeting or an online hearing. Shared custody is the normal result for parents who divorce.
What to do: Go to syslumenn.is for the separation and divorce process, and think about the custody questions before the meeting, not during it. Update Þjóðskrá afterwards. Your marital status affects tax, benefits and future certificates.
The common trap: Forgetting what this does to your right to stay. If your residence permit is based on marriage, a divorce removes the ground it stands on, and you must apply for a permit on another basis if you want to stay. Ask Útlendingastofnun before the divorce is registered, not after.

You are separating and there are children

What actually happens: A child has one registered home address. The parent the child lives with can ask the other parent for child support (meðlag, say: METH-lag). In law the money belongs to the child, not to the parent, and it is for food, clothes and housing. Parents can agree to pay each other directly, or ask Tryggingastofnun (say: TRIG-ging-a-stof-nun, the social insurance office) to sit in the middle, 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 living together can also make a child support agreement.
What to do: Make the agreement official at the District Commissioner (syslumenn.is) instead of agreeing by word, and read the divorce and children pages on Ísland.is. If you need the money to arrive reliably, ask about Tryggingastofnun at tr.is.
The common trap: Deals made by word in a hard 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 agree on everything and wrote your own settlement. Do you need a lawyer?

What actually happens: Many couples write down what they agreed themselves: who keeps what, that neither owes the other money, and how the costs for the child are shared. A private paper like that is not the step the divorce needs. Ísland.is says that a written financial settlement (fjárskiptasamningur, say: FYOWR-skif-ta-samn-ing-ur, the agreement dividing what you own) must be confirmed by both spouses in an interview with the District Commissioner (Sýslumaður). If you own no property at all, you do not write a settlement. Instead you both confirm a statement to that effect in front of the same office. If you own real estate, a registration document for the property is filled in as well. Ísland.is says a lawyer or another adviser may be used when the settlement is made. It does not say one is required.
What to do: Bring your paper, or the plain fact that there is nothing to divide, to the District Commissioner and ask for the interview that goes with your divorce case. Read the official wording first on Ísland.is: financial settlement, official settlement procedure and statement of no property. The money and the child are handled separately: custody, where the child lives, contact and child support are agreed and approved in their own step. If you already agree on these, the District Commissioner simply confirms your agreement. If you disagree, the office sends the case to a conciliation meeting (sáttameðferð, say: SOWT-a-meth-ferth) first — the case cannot be decided until conciliation has been tried. Use a lawyer if one of you owns a business, property, a pension claim or debt that the other cannot see, or if you are not sure the agreement is really equal.
The common trap: Treating a signed private document as finished business. Until it is confirmed before the District Commissioner, it is not part of the divorce. And if you cannot agree, no office will force the settlement through: one of you would have to ask the district court for an official settlement procedure (opinber skipti, say: OP-in-ber SKIF-ti), which is slower and costs more.

You need a paper that proves your family situation

What actually happens: Þjóðskrá issues papers showing your marital status, your marriage, and your marital history. These are what embassies, immigration offices and foreign registers ask for. Note the difference: a marital status certificate shows only your situation today. A marital history certificate lists the changes over time, including earlier husbands or wives.
What to do: Order from Þjóðskrá: marital status and cohabitation. Electronic certificates come to your Ísland.is mailbox and count exactly the same as paper ones, so you can forward them. If you are marrying in Iceland and have already applied for the electronic marriage check, these certificates are already included. Do not order them twice.
The common trap: Ordering the wrong paper the week before a deadline. Foreign offices often want the marital history, and these papers take time, and often need an apostille (an official stamp that makes a document valid abroad) after that.

Sources

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