Under the standard procedure, before registration, each party will usually have to give notice to the appropriate authority. Each party must have resided in the British jurisdiction in which they intend to register, (England and Wales or Northern Ireland) for at least seven days immediately preceding the giving of notice and there will, in most cases, be a fifteen-day waiting period after notice is given. A civil partnership in Wales () may be conducted either in English or, provided that both registering parties, the registrar and witnesses are able to understand and write in the Welsh language, in Welsh. Civil Partnership documents issued in Wales (regardless of the registering language) follow a standardised bilingual English and Welsh format.