Let’s see which are necessary paperworks to get married in Italy and learn what is a “Nulla Osta”.

If you’re wondering how to get married in Italy you certainly ran up against the term Nulla Osta.

Today we are gonna explain what’s the meaning for it!

According to article 116 of the Italian civil code, the Nulla Osta is a document that states that there are no impediments to the marriage of foreign citizens in Italy according to the laws of:

• your country of origin
• the Italian Republic.

There are two ways to obtain the Nulla Osta for a civil wedding in Italy but only the first one will be accepted by the majority of the Italian town halls:

1. The first route (suggested) to obtain the Nulla Osta is to request it in your Consulate or Embassy in Italy. 

As your legal wedding planner in Italy, we can faster this process since we have a long experience with Consular affairs, civil and court weddings of foreigners in Italy. 

You may need to send us some documents issued by your local authority, and your Nulla Osta will be ready soon in Italy. 

Once we have the null osta, we will go to the competent Prefettura to legalize the signature of your Consul, unless specific Convention that exempt from legalization are applicable to your specific case. 

The advantage of this procedure is that on the document issued by your Consulate in Italy it will be written the sentence “NULLA OSTA”. And this is exactly what the clerks of the Italian Municipalities want to read when we ask them to book a wedding!

2. The second route (rarely accepted by town halls in Italy) is going through the public administration of your country of origin. 

The local clerks in your country of origin will provide you a document that states free marital status or a certificate of no impediments to the marriage that states that there are no impediments to your wedding according to the laws of your country of origin.

Once you obtain that, you can go to the Italian embassy in your country and ask to legalize and translate it.

Concerning the translation, there is some country where the legal system provides the official translator. You must use this service in Finland, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, and Sweden.

Please note that in countries where the legal figure of the official translator exists, acts issued by your authorities can be certified by the translator, whose signature is legalized by Italian consular offices. 

Once you have obtained the translation, you must obtain the certificate of conformity of the translation, so you will need to show up, by appointment, at the Italian consular office with the original document in the foreign language and the translation. 

The office will then proceed with legalizing the original and the translation.

In countries where the translator is not provided for by local law, it will be necessary to use the services of the Italian Consulate in your country of origin or translate the document in Italy with the “asseverazione” that is a translation made by a freelance translator in Italy that will declare before a Court official that the translation has been done with the appropriate knowledge of the original language.

As your legal wedding planner in Italy, we will be happy to assist you with any case.

Due to our long experience with the marriage of foreigners in Italy, we will study your case and quickly provide the solution to any scenario.

Please note that we strongly discourage trying this route on n.2 since the majority of the town halls in Italy accept only the document issued by your foreign authority in the Italian territory with the lettering NULLA OSTA.

The reason why this second route is rarely accepted is that only your consulate in Italy knows the Italian law and the law of your country of origin, so your Consulate in Italy is the most competent and reliable office that can issue a Nulla Osta.

There are of course exceptions to the first route that you can see at the link below.

And what about countries that adhered to the Munich Convention to get married in Italy?

If you come from one of the following countries:

AUSTRIA, GERMANY, LUXEMBOURG, NETHERLANDS, PORTUGAL, SPAIN, SWITZERLAND, TURKEY and the REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA,

the procedure is significantly smarter since Italy since these countries above-mentioned have signed the Munich Convention.

The Munich Convention signed on September 5th, 1980, requests the couples to produce the “Certificate of marriage capacity” issued by the office where the Marital status is registered or at the Municipality of residence in the country of origin.

In German, this certificate is called “Ehefähigkeitszeugnis“

Have you ever heard about it?

These types of certificates are exempt from legalization and translation due to this Convention and the italian Ministry of the Interior circular dated January 21st, 2005.

Therefore you do not need translation nor legalization!

Once you obtain this certificate, you will be able to book your wedding at the town hall selected.

And what about the Vienna Convention for a civil marriage in Italy?

Countries adhering to the 1976 Vienna convention can obtain a multilingual model exempt from translation and legalization from the town hall of provenance.

Your wedding planners will bring these documents to your Consulate in Italy, and your Nulla Osta will be issued quickly! Moreover, most important, the Nulla Osta will not need legalization!

The countries that ratified the Vienna Convention are Austria, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, and Montenegro Holland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey.

To get more information about other Conventions that may apply to your specific case, check out our posts about marriage requirements for foreigners in Italy, and getting married in Italy for foreigners.

What happens If your country does not belong to any of the Conventions mentioned above?

No worries at all!

In this case, we will manage the procedure as stated above at point 1, your wedding planner will go in person at your competent Consulate in Italy requesting your Nulla Osta and proceed with legalization.

Regarding legalization, public offices may be overbooked due to the activity of agencies operating in this field. 

To resolve this problem, we will start an emergency procedure that will quickly end up in the release of the legalization of your Nulla Osta.

What to do if the authorities of your country of origin do not want to release the Nulla Osta?

Well, for this scenario, there is a way out we described in the article about how to get married in Italy without the Nulla Osta.

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.