Get to know the marriage requirements to get married in Italy as a British citizen.

Besides Planners, we have been legal consultants for the Italian foreign offices! This experience allowed us to gain deep expertise in foreign affairs.

Let’s see some case scenarios that might be useful concerning your current situation.
So please let us know which is your case of the following!

Case 1: You live in the UK

You will need to prove you’re allowed to marry by getting a certificate of no impediment, called CNI, and a statutory declaration.

If your partner is British will need a CNI and statutory declaration either.

How to get your CNI

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

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

You’ll need to bring specifics with you to your appointment.

Your notice (banns of marriage) will be displayed in the registered office for 28 days. You can collect your CNI after this if nobody registers an objection.

Your CNI won’t expire if issued in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland. For example, CNIs issued in Scotland expire after three months. However, it would help if you showed your CNI to the Municipality in Italy no later than six months from the issuing.

However, if you live in the Isle of Man, Jersey, or Guernsey, check you should check with your local register office in order to find out how long a CNI is valid if you live there. 

Please note that CNI is valid for six months under Italian law (the same as for nulla osta).

How to get a Statutory Declaration

You’ll need to provide more information in a statutory declaration.

Indeed you need to sign it in front of a solicitor or public notary in the UK. 
This document will be bilingual, hence your certified translator in Italy won’t need to translate it.

Get your documents translated and legalized.

Once you’ve got the statutory declaration and the CNI, you’ll need to get them legalized (certified as genuine) by the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office with apostille.

You’ll also need to get a certified translation of your CNI. 

You may send your CNI and Statutory declaration to your wedding planner in Italy, which will use the service of an approved translator. 

Case 2:  You are a UK citizen living in Italy

If you’re in Italy, you’ll need to get a Nulla Osta (art. 116 Italian civil code).

To get a Nulla Osta, you need to make an appointment at the British Embassy in Rome to give notice of your marriage. 

Your partner does not have to come with you if they are not a British citizen applying for their own Nulla Osta.

Suppose you cannot reach the British Embassy; in that case, you can download the Nulla Osta application pack, fill in the affirmation and notice of marriage and sign them in front of an Italian notary using the so-called “autentica di firma” procedure. 

Then you’ll have to pay a fee. Next, send the signed documents and supporting documents to the British embassy in Rome.

You need to be in Italy for three days immediately before you notice. 

You can then notify either at the embassy or by signing the forms before an Italian notary. For example, if you arrive on Monday, you cannot give notice until Friday.

It costs £50 to give notice and £50 for the Nulla Osta. You can pay by card. If you desire to pay in cash, you will need to pay in the local currency.

You’ll need to bring:

• your passport

• a copy of your partner’s passport

• notice of marriage and affirmation or affidavit for marriage forms from the Nulla Osta application pack – you can fill in (but not sign) these in advance

• a residency certificate issued by your local town hall (comune) in the last three months (if you’re a resident in Italy)

• proof that you’ve been in Italy for at least the three full days before giving notice (if you’re not a resident) – for example, a boarding pass or a hotel receipt.

You must bring a residency certificate if you’re using an Italian address on your notice of marriage.

If you were married or in a civil partnership before, you’ll need to take documents to prove the end of any previous marriages or civil partnerships.

Depending on how it ended, this will be:

• your decree absolute or final order (this could be a printed PDF and covering email from the court);

• your annulment certificate;

• your civil partnership dissolution;

• your partner’s death certificate and marriage certificate.

You can provide copies of a divorce decree or death certificate instead of originals. However, they’ll need to be certified by a notary public or solicitor in the country where the divorce took place or the death was registered.

If your divorce, civil partnership dissolution, or annulment took place outside the UK, you’d also need evidence that you or your former partner lived in or were a national of that country at the time of the divorce.

The British embassy will publicly display your notice of marriage for seven whole days.

This means if the embassy gets your notice on Monday (in person or by post), it will be displayed until the following Tuesday.

If nobody registers an objection, your Nulla Osta should be ready within two weeks of giving your notice.

After that, you can collect it in person or have it delivered by post to your wedding planner in Italy.

You don’t need to stay in the country while your notice is displayed.

Please note that if you’ve changed your name and it doesn’t appear exactly as it does on your birth certificate, you’ll need to give the local marriage authorities of your name change. 

Get your documents translated and legalized.

You don’t need to get a Nulla Osta legalized or translated.

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

You’ll be charged fees for translating your documents.

Case 3: You’re in Italy temporarily 

If you are in Italy for vacation or business reasons and want to avoid returning to the UK to get these documents, you can follow a different process and get a Nulla Osta in Italy instead. Please note that you need to put your UK address on the Nulla Osta application form, not where you’re staying in Italy.

To get a Nulla Osta, make an appointment at the British Embassy in Rome to give notice of your marriage.

Your partner does not have to come with you if they are not a British citizen applying for their own Nulla Osta.

If you cannot get to the embassy, you can use the Nulla Osta application pack, fill in the affirmation and notice of marriage and sign them in front of an Italian notary using the so-called vera di firma procedure. You’ll have to pay a fee. Then, send the signed documents and supporting documents to the embassy.

You need to be in Italy for three whole days immediately before you give notice. You can then give notice either at the embassy or by signing the forms in front of an Italian notary. This means if you arrive on Monday, you can give notice on Friday.

It costs £50 to give notice and £50 for the Nulla Osta. You can pay by card. However, if you want to pay in cash, you must pay in the local currency.

You’ll need to bring the following:

• your passport
• a copy of your partner’s passport
• Notice of marriage and affirmation or affidavit for marriage forms from the Nulla Osta application pack – you can fill in (but not sign) these in advance.
• A residency certificate issued by your local town hall (comune) in the last three months (if you’re a resident in Italy).
• Proof that you’ve been in Italy for at least three full days before giving notice (if you’re not a resident) – for example, a boarding pass or a hotel receipt.

You must bring a residency certificate if you use an Italian address on your notice of marriage.

You don’t need to get a Nulla Osta legalized or translated.

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

You’ll be charged fees for translating your documents using the service of legal translation your wedding planner in Italy can provide.

Case 4: You live out of the UK

In order to prove you’re legally allowed to get married, you’ll need to either:

• go to the UK and get a CNI and Statutory declaration (please see information described above)

• go to Italy and get a Nulla Osta (please see information described above)

If your partner is British, they will also need a CNI and statutory declaration or a Nulla Osta if they’re British. If they’re not, the necessary documents might be different depending on their citizenship.

Case 5: Civil Partnership

You will have to prove you’re legally allowed to register a civil partnership by getting a certificate of no impediment (CNI) and a statutory declaration (see above).

Your partner will also need a CNI and statutory declaration if they’re British. 

If you’re not British, the documents needed will be different depending on the citizenship.

If you’re in Italy temporarily and 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 (see above).

You need to put down your UK address on the Nulla Osta application form, not where you’re staying in Italy.

Who will be your Counselors and Planners?

Due to our experience in law firms and the foreign offices of the Italian public administration, we gained significant expertise in Consular affairs, and we are trained to solve the most complicated procedure such as:

1) Nulla osta process, legalization procedure, Court hearings for the refusal of the town hall when there documents missing , legal translation, apostille procedure, emergency procedure for legalization.

2) Same-sex couples that want to celebrate a civil union in Italy as in their country the union is forbidden;

3) Couples that come from countries where divorce is not allowed;

4) Italians living abroad registered at AIRE that need to recover their document to start the marriage banns in the Italian Consulate;

5) Assistance with people that come from countries that do not release the nulla osta;

6) American and Australian couples who needs assistance with “atto notorio” in an Italian Court or the Italian Consulate in the USA or Australia.

7) People with refugee status who have requested asylum in Italy.