Short answer. Only if you are between twenty-one and twenty-five. In that band you must ask your parents for advice, and if the advice is unfavourable, or you obtain none at all, the license cannot be issued until three months after the publication of your application has been completed.
What the law says
Any contracting party between the age of twenty-one and twenty-five shall be obliged to ask their parents or guardian for advice upon the intended marriage. If they do not obtain such advice, or if it be unfavorable, the marriage license shall not be issued till after three months following the completion of the publication of the application therefor.
Family Code, Article 15 — Parental Advice for Applicants Aged 21 to 25. Read the full provision →
Advice can delay a marriage; it cannot stop one
Article 15 is often confused with the parental consent rule that applies below twenty-one, and the difference is the whole answer. Below twenty-one, consent is a requirement — without it the license does not issue at all. Between twenty-one and twenty-five, what the law requires is that you ask. The parents' answer does not control the outcome. Unfavourable advice, and refusal to give any advice, produce exactly the same consequence: a waiting period, after which the license issues whether or not anyone has changed their mind. Above twenty-five neither consent nor advice is required, and disapproval has no legal effect whatever.
What the delay actually is
The Code does not say the license is withheld for three months from the date you apply. It says it shall not be issued till after three months following the completion of the publication of the application therefor. Publication of the application is a separate step the registrar carries out, so the three months run from the completion of that step, not from the moment you first walk into the office. If timing matters to you — a visa, a posting abroad, a family member who is unwell — this is the point to raise with the registrar directly, because the answer depends on where your application sits in that sequence.
The paperwork the article requires from you
Compliance is proved in writing, not by assurance. The article requires a sworn statement by the contracting parties to the effect that such advice has been sought, together with the written advice given, if any, attached to the application. And it anticipates the awkward case directly: Should the parents or guardian refuse to give any advice, this fact shall be stated in the sworn statement. So a parent who will not engage does not leave you without a route — you record the refusal and swear to it. What you cannot do is swear that advice was sought when it never was.
How to handle a disapproving family
If you are in the twenty-one to twenty-five band and expect a difficult conversation, ask early and ask in a way that leaves a record, because the clock and the paperwork both depend on the asking rather than on the answer. Keep whatever written response you receive, however blunt, and hand it over with the application. If your parents simply refuse to reply, say so in the sworn statement rather than leaving the item blank. Then plan the wedding date around the waiting period instead of hoping to shorten it, since the delay is written into the statute and is not the registrar's to waive.
Related provisions
- Family Code, Article 14 — Parental Consent for Applicants Aged 18 to 21
- Family Code, Article 15 — Parental Advice for Applicants Aged 21 to 25