Marriage Registration in Bangladesh: Documents, Fees and Steps (2026)

A couple in Mirpur went to apply for their daughter's passport and were asked for the marriage certificate. They had a wedding with four hundred guests, a kazi, two witnesses and a video of the whole thing. What they did not have was a registered marriage. The kazi they used that day was not licensed for the area, and no entry was ever made in any register.

That situation is more common than most families believe, and it is expensive to fix years later. Marriage registration in Bangladesh is a short administrative process that costs a defined and fairly small fee, and this is what it involves.

Registration is not optional

Under the Muslim Marriages and Divorces (Registration) Act 1974, every Muslim marriage in Bangladesh must be registered. Failing to register is an offence, punishable with simple imprisonment of up to two years, a fine, or both. The duty sits with the registrar, but the consequences of an unregistered marriage land almost entirely on the wife.

A nikah performed correctly with ijab, qabul and witnesses is valid in religious terms whether or not it is registered. That is not the point. The point is proof. Without a kabin nama there is nothing to take to a family court, an embassy, a bank or a passport office, and the burden of establishing that a marriage happened at all falls on the person with the least power in the situation.

Who is allowed to register your marriage

Only a nikah registrar licensed by the government may register a Muslim marriage, and each licence covers a defined area — a union, a ward or a municipality. A registrar cannot lawfully register a marriage that took place outside the area of his licence, and this is exactly how families end up with a ceremony that never became an entry.

• Ask for the registrar's licence number and the area it covers, before the date is fixed.
• Confirm which register volume and page your entry will go into, and when the certified copy will be ready.
• An assistant, a helpful uncle or a local imam without a licence cannot register anything, however well they conduct the ceremony.

Hindu, Christian and Buddhist marriages are registered under entirely different laws. For Hindu couples, see Hindu Marriage Registration in Bangladesh.

What to bring on the day

• National ID cards for the bride and the groom. Where an NID has not been issued yet, a birth registration certificate is used to establish age.
• Proof of age. The legal minimum is 21 for men and 18 for women, and a registrar who registers an underage marriage risks his licence. See The Legal Age of Marriage in Bangladesh.
• Passport-size photographs, usually two of each party.
• Witnesses with their own NIDs. Two adult male witnesses, or one male and two female, with names, fathers' names and addresses.
• The agreed den mohor figure, including the prompt and deferred split, decided before you arrive rather than at the table.
• Where either party was married before, the divorce registration certificate or the death certificate of the previous spouse.
• Where the groom has an existing wife, written permission from the Arbitration Council under the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961.

The steps, in order

1. Agree the mohor total and the prompt and deferred split between the two families, in advance.
2. Book a licensed registrar for the area where the marriage will take place, and give him the details ahead of the day.
3. The nikah itself: the offer and acceptance, freely given, in front of witnesses.
4. The registrar fills in the kabin nama form. Read it before anyone signs — our column-by-column guide explains what each entry means.
5. Bride, groom, witnesses and registrar sign. The entry goes into the bound register.
6. Pay the fee and take a receipt.
7. Collect the certified copy, the nakol, and keep the bride's copy with the bride.

The official fee scale

This is the part that saves families the most money and the most argument, because very few people know that the fee is fixed by rule rather than by negotiation. It is calculated on the den mohor amount.

• Tk 12.50 for every Tk 1,000 of den mohor, or part of a thousand, up to a mohor of Tk 4 lakh.
• A minimum of Tk 200, whatever the mohor.
• Tk 100 for each additional lakh of mohor above Tk 4 lakh, or part of a lakh.
• Tk 500 to register a divorce.

So a mohor of Tk 3 lakh means a registration fee of about Tk 3,750. A mohor of Tk 6 lakh means about Tk 5,200 — Tk 5,000 for the first four lakh, plus Tk 200 for the two lakh above it. Reasonable additional charges exist where the registrar has to travel to the venue, and a certified copy carries its own small fee. Everything else is negotiation, not law. This walkthrough of registration fees sets out what a kazi may and may not ask for. Ask for a receipt every time.

If the amount you are quoted bears no relation to the scale above, say so calmly and ask for the fee to be written on a receipt. Overcharging survives entirely on the fact that families are embarrassed to ask.

Registering late, and what court marriage is not

A marriage that was never registered can usually still be registered afterwards, by applying to the registrar for the area with the witnesses, the evidence and the details of the original ceremony. It is harder the longer you leave it, particularly once witnesses have moved away or died, and there is a clear explanation of the late registration route here.

The bigger misunderstanding is court marriage. What people call court marriage in Bangladesh is an affidavit sworn before a notary or oath commissioner, usually declaring that two adults have married of their own free will. It is a useful document in some situations, and it is not a marriage and not a registration. A couple who have only an affidavit and no kabin nama are, in the eyes of a family court, exactly where the Mirpur couple were.

What a registered marriage actually protects

• Den mohor. Recovering unpaid mohor starts with the kabin nama and effectively ends without it.
• Maintenance and dissolution. Family courts work from the registered document.
• Children. Birth registration, school admission and passports all run more smoothly with a registered marriage.
• Inheritance. A widow claiming her share should not have to prove she was a wife.
• Visas and immigration. Every embassy asks for the marriage certificate, and usually an attested English version. That process is covered in Getting Your Marriage Certificate Translated and Attested.

This starts long before the kazi is booked

Every problem in this article is really a planning problem. Families who have talked openly about mohor, documents, expectations and where the couple will live are the ones who arrive at the registrar's table with nothing left to argue about.

On amarjibon, every profile is NID-verified with a liveness selfie check, families can be part of the conversation from the first message, and you can filter on the things that decide compatibility — observance, education, district of origin, and expectations about work and household. It is bilingual in English and বাংলা, and your phone number stays private until you choose to share it.

Related reading

• Who Can Be a Wali? The Guardian's Role in Nikah, Explained
• Christian and Buddhist Marriage in Bangladesh: Ceremony and Registration
• Iddah: The Waiting Period Before Remarriage, Explained

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