Get married legally with a catholic wedding in Italy with civil legal effect in your country of provenance (matrimonio concordatario).

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

We know that modern states are secularized and, therefore, indifferent to the religious affairs of the churches operating within them.

It cannot be ignored, however, that Italy has deep roots and Christianity is an integral part of its history and culture.
One of the aspects where this connection with Catholic culture is most evident is undoubtedly that of the family, where, traditionally, the Catholic Church intervenes in various moments of the family affair.

For these reasons, the Italian state has not remained indifferent to the sacrament of marriage, recognizing the civil effects of the marriage rite celebrated before a Catholic church minister.

In the Italian legal system, civil marriage and concordat marriage are regulated by the concordat of 1929 (l. 27\05\1929 No. 847) and the concordat revision agreement signed together with an additional protocol on Feb. 18, 1984.

Let us observe that the 1929 concordat was not abolished as a whole, but individual provisions incompatible with the new agreements were abrogated.

Since June 1992, foreigners neither domiciled nor residing in Italy do not need banns for marriage concordat (Gazzetta Ufficiale del 1.6.1992, No. 127, Italian Civil Code Art.115-bis).

In that case, the bride and groom must apply in advance to the registrar of the Municipality where the parish and Church are located and declare that the marriage will be celebrated before the parish priest of that place.
They shall present valid identity documents and the nulla osta issued by their Consulate in Italy if any convention applies to their country of provenance (such as the London Convention, Vienna Convention, or Munich Convention).
For the religious celebration, documentation from the home Parish is required with nulla osta from the respective Curia.
Please note that after the Church celebration, the Priest who has officiated the wedding in the Church is obliged by law to submits the marriage certificate with the request for transcription to the civil status office of the competent Municipality where the Church is located taken into account the territorial competency.

The couple has the right to request one or more copies of the marriage certificate at the Municipality and depending on the convention applicable to the country where the couple wants the Italian marriage certificate recognized, it may be necessary to legalize it through the apostille procedure (Hague convention) or legalize it using the service of the consulate service of their country of origin.

Also, still depending on the Conventions applicable, it may be necessary to translate the Italian marriage certificate. In this case even the translation must be legalized through the apostille (Hague convention) or through the legalization services of your embassy in Italy.

The translation can be done at any Italian Court with a professional translator through the procedure called “asseverazione” or using the services of your Consulate if provided by them.

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.