Will Israel register a marriage performed online, such as a Utah Zoom wedding?

Israel has no civil marriage performed inside the country, so couples who cannot or do not wish to marry through a recognized religious court have long married abroad and registered the foreign certificate. In HCJ 1779/21 the High Court of Justice held that a marriage conducted over video before the authorities of Utah, where the couple appear remotely while the marriage is legally performed in the foreign jurisdiction, is a foreign marriage for registration purposes. The Population and Immigration Authority (Rashut HaOchlosin VeHaHagira) must therefore register it on production of the foreign marriage certificate, applying the same documentary standard it uses for in-person foreign civil marriages.

Registration is powerful but limited. It records the couple as married for tax, Bituach Leumi (National Insurance), pension, and inheritance purposes, yet personal-status questions such as divorce still route through the religious courts for Jewish couples, which can complicate an online civil marriage later. Prepare an authenticated, apostilled marriage certificate from the issuing jurisdiction and a certified Hebrew translation. The Authority occasionally raises questions where both spouses are foreign nationals with no prior Israeli status, so confirm each spouse's immigration standing in parallel. Couples relying on the marriage to support a status application should expect the relationship itself to be examined for genuineness, separately from the formal validity of the ceremony. Our guide to getting married in Israel as a foreigner sets out the alternatives.

From the full guide: Getting Married in Israel as a Foreigner

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