Bec asks:

I have a couple I met back on June 14 2019 & I sighted birth cert & Drivers Licence & verified Id of both couples. He advised he was divorced, but they had forgotten it & I said send it thru electronically.  Now we signed the NOIM based on the ID’s & info provided with me being the witness to their signatures on the day – 14th June.
Upon receiving the Divorce Certificate I noticed the date of the order was effective the 15th June 2019, so they must have been awaiting it & stalling? or just knew it would be thru prior to the day.
Now:
a) I understand if they state they have been married before I must sight death / divorce evidence & record before I can legally marry them…
b) I have received the divorce certificate well before the NOIM minimum time frame.
Questions:
a) Should I have not accepted the NOIM until I got the divorce certificate.
b) Do I need to now to create a new NOIM & resign with the couple as the date of the divorce is after we signed the NOIM.
I thought I could just adjust the date of the divorce info on the BDM site electronically & on the manual NOIM make a note & sign it & that a new one wasn’t needed.
This is totally fine! As long as the divorce certificate has a date before the marriage, there’s no problem. It doesn’t have to be through before they lodge the NOIM. Don’t worry about there being a one-day discrepancy, that’s absolutely not relevant at all.
They don’t even have to be divorced before the month’s notice period, as long as the divorce is finalised and the celebrant sights the divorce order before the marriage is solemnised.
In future, if the divorce hasn’t been finalised before the NOIM is lodged, they can write Married, Divorce Pending in the conjugal status line, but one day is not going to make any difference at all.
No dramas! All good to go!

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