Getting Married in Italy: Legal Requirements, Documents & Expert Guide

Destination weddings in Italy are becoming increasingly popular, with more and more couples looking to add some dolce vita to their marriage celebrations. From stunning coastlines to picturesque vineyards, Italy has no shortage of idyllic wedding locations, but Italian bureaucracy can seem daunting for British couples thinking of tying the knot under the Italian sun. In this article, we will outline the various options for celebrating your marriage in Italy and explain the legal processes and requirements for getting married under Italian law.

Types of Weddings in Italy

There are three main types of marriage ceremony available in Italy:

• Civil ceremony: Civil ceremonies usually take place at a town hall (comune) or another authorised venue and are performed by the local mayor or a civil registrar. The ceremony will be conducted entirely in Italian, although you can request an official interpreter if needed. The ceremony typically lasts around 20–30 minutes and involves a reading of the Italian civil code and the marriage vows. Once a civil marriage has been registered at the local Italian civil registry office, it is legally binding under both Italian and UK law.
• Religious ceremony: Religious marriages in Italy are not always legally binding unless the church is authorised by the Italian state to perform Concordat marriages. If your chosen church or place of worship is not officially authorised, you can still have a religious marriage ceremony, but you will also need to have a civil ceremony in order for your marriage to be legally valid. Most religious marriages in Italy are Catholic, due to the country’s overwhelming Catholic majority, but all marriages in all religions are recognised.
• Civil union: Same-sex marriage is not officially recognised in Italy; however, same-sex civil unions are possible. A civil union grants the same inheritance, cohabitation, pension and family name rights as civil or religious marriage under Italian law, although a same-sex couple in a civil union cannot adopt a child whereas a married couple can. Civil unions are only possible for same-sex couples.

Legal Requirements for Getting Married in Italy

Unlike many other countries, in Italy, there is no requirement for either party to be a resident in or citizen of Italy in order to get married there. This makes Italy a particularly attractive destination for British couples looking to tie the knot abroad. However, the legal process before your big day can be quite complex and time-consuming. In particular, you will require many official documents that will need to be translated into Italian and apostilled in order to be accepted by the Italian authorities, and they might refuse documents if they contain even the slightest inconsistency or inaccuracy.

Necessary Documents for Marriage in Italy

In order to get married in Italy, you will require many official documents, namely:

• A valid passport or national ID card for both parties
• Both parties’ birth certificates. These must be either the original or an official certified copy
• If either party was previously married, your divorce Decree Absolute/Final Order or the death certificate of your former spouse
  • Important: Under Italian law, a woman who was previously married cannot remarry until 300 days have passed since her divorce or the death of her former spouse, unless you apply for special dispensation through the Civil Law Courts (Tribunale Civile). This restriction does not apply to men.
• With the three documents above, you will be able to apply for a Certificate of No Impediment by giving notice to your local registry office in the UK. In Italian, this is known as “Nulla Osta” (“No Objections”)
• A Statutory Declaration confirming that you are both legally free to marry. This document must be signed in the presence of a solicitor, Notary Public or Commissioner for Oaths

It is important to note that you cannot start the documentation process more than six months before your wedding (three months if you are resident in Scotland), so while it is important to be prepared, don’t be tempted to get your documents too soon.

Once you have obtained these documents from the relevant authorities in the UK, they must be prepared for use in Italy following a highly precise process, as follows:

• All documents must be legalised through the Apostille process. This involves sending all the original documents (photocopies or digital scans are not acceptable) to the legalisation service of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in the UK, often via a Notary Public.
• Once legalised, each document must be translated into Italian, either by a sworn translator based in Italy, or by a professional translator based in the UK who is a member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) or the Association of Translation Companies (ATC).
• The translations must be certified by the translator, whereby each translation is accompanied by a signed, dated and legally binding declaration (in Italian) confirming:
  1. that the translation is accurate
  2. the translator’s details (name, date of birth, address and contact details)
  3. that the translator is a sworn translator based in Italy or a member of one of the approved UK translation industry bodies, as applicable
• The certified translations must then be notarised by a Notary Public based in the UK, who will confirm that the translator is indeed a sworn translator or a member of one of the UK translation industry bodies. The Notary Public will provide a notarial certificate for each document, which will be permanently bound to the certification declaration, the original and its translation.
• The notarised translations will then need to be apostilled a second time, to confirm the authenticity of the Notary Public’s declaration.

At Business Language Services, we have been providing translations into Italian for over 30 years and can assist with getting the original and translated documents apostilled such that they are accepted by the Italian authorities.

If you are looking to get married in Italy, speak to our friendly team today for more information, by calling +44 (0)29 2066 7666 or sending an email to in**@*************************co.uk. Alternatively, use our quick and easy quote tool.