Getting married or registering a civil partnership abroad: Information based on your answers

Marriage in Italy

Before you start

Contact the local town hall (‘comune’) where you want to get married to find out about local marriage laws, including what documents you and your partner will need.

If you’re a woman, you must wait 300 days after divorcing or the death of your husband before remarrying.

Prove you’re free to get married

You need to prove you’re legally allowed to get married by getting a certificate of no impediment (CNI) and a statutory declaration.

Your partner will also need a CNI and statutory declaration if they’re British. If they’re not, the documents they need might be different.

If you’re in Italy temporarily and you do not want to return to the UK to get these documents, you can follow a different process and get a Nulla Osta in Italy instead. You need to put down your UK address on the Nulla Osta application form, not where you’re staying in Italy.

Get a CNI and a statutory declaration

You’ll need to get a CNI and a statutory declaration if you’re in the UK.

To get a CNI, make an appointment at your local register office to give notice of your marriage. A CNI costs £35.

Contact your local register office to find out what you need to do if you live in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey or Guernsey.

You’ll need to bring certain documents with you to your appointment.

Your notice will be publicly displayed in the register office for 28 days. You can collect your CNI after this if nobody registers an objection.

Your CNI will not expire if it was issued in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. CNIs issued in Scotland expire after 3 months. Check with your local register office to find out how long a CNI is valid if you live in the Isle of Man, Jersey or Guernsey.

A CNI is valid for 6 months under Italian law.

You’ll need to provide more information in a ‘statutory declaration’. You need to sign it in front of a solicitor or public notary in the UK. They’ll charge you a fee.

There’s a standard template in English and Italian that you can download and use.

Bilingual statutory declaration

Get your documents translated and legalised

If you’ve got a statutory declaration and CNI, you’ll need to get them legalised (certified as genuine) by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

You’ll also need to get a certified translation of your CNI. You need to use an approved translator.

You need to get your supporting documents (for example, a decree absolute) legalised and translated if they’re not in English or Italian.

You’ll be charged fees for translating your documents.

If you’ve changed your name

If your name on any of your documents doesn’t appear exactly as it does on your birth certificate, you’ll need to give the Italian marriage authorities evidence of your name change (for example, a marriage certificate or deed poll). If you don’t, the authorities may refuse to allow the marriage to go ahead.

Get married

You’ll need to give your CNI and statutory declaration to the person who’s going to marry you. This will be:

a priest if you’re having a religious ceremony
a registrar at the town hall (comune) if you’re having a civil ceremony

After you get married

Your marriage will be recognised in the UK if:

you follow the correct process according to the law in Italy
it would be allowed under UK law

You won’t need to register your marriage in the UK.

If you need extra copies of your marriage certificate, you can apply for them at the local comune.

If your partner isn’t a British citizen, they can apply for British citizenship once they’ve lived in the UK for 3 years.