How to get married if you are under 18 years old

UNDERAGE APPLICANTS - no more marriages if a party is under 16! GENERAL AGE REQUIREMENT. Except as otherwise provided by this subchapter or on a showing that a prior marriage has been dissolved, a county clerk may not issue a marriage license if either applicant is under 18 years of age. PARENTAL CONSENT FOR UNDERAGE APPLICANT. (a) If an applicant is 16 years of age or older but under 18 years of age, the county clerk shall issue the license if parental consent is given as provided by this section. (b) Parental consent must be evidenced by a written declaration on a form supplied by the county clerk in which the person consents to the marriage and swears that the person is a parent (if there is no judicially designated managing conservator or guardian of the applicant's person) or a judicially designated managing conservator or guardian (whether an individual, authorized agency, or court) of the applicant's person. (c) Except as otherwise provided by this section, consent must be acknowledged before a county clerk. (d) If the person giving parental consent resides in another state, the consent may be acknowledged before an officer authorized to issue marriage licenses in that state. (e) If the person giving parental consent is unable because of illness or incapacity to comply with the provisions of Subsection (c) or (d), the consent may be acknowledged before any officer authorized to take acknowledgments. A consent under this subsection must be accompanied by a physician's affidavit stating that the person giving parental consent is unable to comply because of illness or incapacity. (f) Parental consent must be given at the time the application for the marriage license is made or not earlier than the 30th day preceding the date the application is made. (g) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly provides parental consent for an underage applicant under this section and the person is not a parent or a judicially designated managing conservator or guardian of the applicant. An offense under this subsection is a Class A misdemeanor. (h) A parent or judicially designated managing conservator or guardian of an applicant commits an offense if the parent, managing conservator, or guardian knowingly provides parental consent under this section for an applicant who is younger than 16 years of age or who is presently married to a person other than the person the applicant desires to marry. An offense under this subsection is a felony of the third degree. COURT ORDER FOR UNDERAGE APPLICANT. (a) A minor may petition the court in the minor's own name for an order granting permission to marry. In a suit under this section, the trial judge may advance the suit if the best interest of the applicant would be served by an early hearing. (b) The petition must be filed in the county where a parent resides if a managing conservator or a guardian of the person has not been appointed. If a managing conservator or a guardian of the person has been appointed, the petition must be filed in the county where the managing conservator or the guardian of the person resides. If no person authorized to consent to marriage for the minor resides in this state, the petition must be filed in the county where the minor lives. (c) The petition must include: (1) a statement of the reasons the minor desires to marry; (2) a statement of whether each parent is living or is dead; (3) the name and residence address of each living parent; and (4) a statement of whether a managing conservator or a guardian of the person has been appointed for the minor. (d) Process shall be served as in other civil cases on each living parent of the minor or, if a managing conservator or a guardian of the person has been appointed, on the managing conservator or guardian of the person. Citation may be given by publication as in other civil cases, except that notice shall be published one time only. (e) The court shall appoint an amicus attorney or an attorney ad litem to represent the minor in the proceeding. The court shall specify a fee to be paid by the minor for the services of the amicus attorney or attorney ad litem. The fee shall be collected in the same manner as other costs of the proceeding. (f) If after a hearing the court, sitting without a jury, believes marriage to be in the best interest of the minor, the court, by order, shall grant the minor permission to marry.