For British citizens living in the UK, you must first give notice at your local register office to obtain a Certificate of No Impediment (CNI). Then, you must have it apostilled by the FCDO Legalisation Office before signing a bilingual Statutory Declaration before a UK solicitor or notary. From there, you CNI must be sworn-translated into Italian and sent, with your declarations, to the Comune where you intend to marry.
The rest of this guide will explain each step, the exceptions, and the mistakes that derail many couples from their dream wedding.
Yes, getting married in Italy for foreigners is entirely possible because Italy has no residency requirement for marriage. If you live in the UK, you usually only need to arrive a few days before the wedding. What Italy does require is proof that you are legally free to marry, presented in a form the Italian registrar (the Ufficiale di Stato Civile) can accept.
British couples generally choose one of four routes:
Civil Ceremony: Conducted by the mayor or a delegated official at the Town Hall or another Comune-approved venue. This is the most common legal route and the one this guide focuses on.
Catholic Ceremony: Under the agreement between Italy and the Vatican, a Catholic wedding can be legally binding as well as religious, with the priest arranging civil registration. You will still need your CNI, plus church documents arranged through your home parish and diocese.
Other Religious Ceremonies: Some faiths have agreements with the Italian state that allow legally binding ceremonies. Others require a separate civil ceremony.
Symbolic Ceremony: You marry legally in the UK and hold a non-legal ceremony in Italy, which gives you total freedom over location, timing and wording.
Same-sex couples can register a civil union (unione civile), which Italy has recognised since 2016. Italy does not currently offer same-sex marriage, so speak with the Comune early because some require an in-person meeting further in advance.
If you both live in the UK, each of you will normally need:
A Valid UK Passport: The names and details on every other document must match it exactly.
A Certificate of No Impediment (CNI): Known in Italian as the Nulla Osta, issued by your local register office and legalised with an apostille.
A Sworn Italian Translation of the CNI: This is typically completed by a sworn translator in Italy.
A Bilingual Statutory Declaration (English and Italian): Signed before a UK solicitor or notary public and then apostilled. Because it is already bilingual, it usually needs no translation.
Evidence that Any Previous Marriage has Ended: if relevant, a final divorce order (or decree absolute for older divorces) or a death certificate will be required.
Some Comuni also ask for birth certificates or proof of residence, so always request the Town Hall's own checklist before you order anything.
Every Italian municipality runs its own appointment system and can interpret paperwork slightly differently. Lake Como, Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast are all popular, but a small hilltop Comune and a large city registry may handle your file in very different ways. Lock in your venue and ask the Town Hall for its requirements before starting the UK side. If you are still deciding where to marry, explore our guides to Lake Como weddings, Tuscany weddings and Amalfi Coast weddings.
In England and Wales, you must have lived in your registration district for at least seven clear days before giving notice. Your notice is then displayed for 28 clear days, after which the CNI is issued. You each attend in person and pay the statutory notice fee. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own procedures, so contact your local registrar.
Time this carefully. Because a CNI from England, Wales or Northern Ireland is usually valid for six months and a Scottish one for only three, giving notice too early can leave you with an expired certificate on your wedding day.
Send each CNI to the FCDO Legalisation Office for an apostille, the stamp that certifies a UK public document for use abroad. Most couples choose a paper apostille, since a register office CNI is a paper document and many Comuni expect originals. Confirm with your Comune before choosing an e-Apostille.
Each of you signs a bilingual Statutory Declaration in front of a UK solicitor or notary public. The signed declaration must then be apostilled as well.
Your apostilled CNI must be officially translated into Italian. This is usually done in Italy by a sworn translator, who swears the translation before an Italian court, and many couples have their planner arrange it.
Deliver or courier the originals to the registrar, or hand them to your planner to submit. Check every name, date and place of birth against your passports before anything leaves your hands. A single typo can cause a rejection.
Both of you attend the Town Hall in person, usually two to three working days before the wedding, to swear your declaration of intent to marry. If either of you does not speak Italian, an interpreter is required by law, both for this appointment and for the ceremony.
You will need two witnesses aged 18 or over with valid ID. After the ceremony, the registrar records your marriage and issues your certificate, sometimes on the day and sometimes a few days later. Ask for the multilingual version as well as the standard Italian extract, since UK passport offices, banks and employers sometimes ask for a particular format or a sworn translation.
If you are British but do not live in the UK, you cannot get a CNI from a UK register office. Instead, you apply to the British Embassy in Rome for a Nulla Osta. The UK government publishes an application pack with notice and affirmation templates that lets you apply by post, after a notary witnesses your signature (in Italy, this is done through a process called vera di firma).
Because of the notice period, planners often recommend arriving in Italy 30 to 45 days before the wedding and not applying more than six months ahead. The alternative is to return to the UK and re-establish residency long enough to give notice there.
One Partner is not British: The British partner follows the UK process, while the other partner follows the rules for their own nationality. Living in the UK does not make a non-British partner eligible for a UK CNI.
One Partner is Italian or Holds Dual Italian Citizenship: The Italian partner usually files notice through their Italian Comune of residence or, if registered with AIRE (the registry of Italians abroad), through their Italian consulate. Dual nationals may have to marry as Italian citizens.
You Have Been Married Before: Bring your final divorce order (or decree absolute) or your late spouse's death certificate, apostilled if required. Divorces granted outside the British Isles may need clearance from the General Register Office first. Italian civil law also contains a waiting period that can stop a woman remarrying within 300 days of a divorce or her spouse's death unless a court grants an exemption, so raise this with the Comune immediately if it could apply.
When | What to do |
12 to 18 months before | Choose your region and secure your venue and date |
6 to 9 months before | Contact the Comune for its checklist and confirm your route |
3 to 6 months before | Give notice at your register office (in Scotland, time it so your 3-month CNI is still valid on the wedding day) |
About 2 months before | Apostille CNIs, sign and apostille Statutory Declarations |
4 to 6 weeks before, or earlier if your Comune asks | Send documents to Italy for sworn translation and submission |
2 to 3 working days before | Attend your declaration of intent at the Town Hall |
Wedding day | Ceremony with two witnesses and an interpreter |
Expect a notice fee per person at your register office (around £42 to £46.50 in England and Wales, and some councils add an admin fee), an apostille fee per document, usually four in total for a couple (£45 each for the standard paper service, or £35 for an e-Apostille), a solicitor or notary fee for each Statutory Declaration, sworn translation fees in Italy, interpreter fees, and the Comune's ceremony fee. Town Hall fees vary widely depending on the municipality, the venue, the day of the week and whether you are residents.
Yes. A marriage celebrated according to Italian law is legally recognised in the UK, and there is no requirement to register it with UK authorities. Keep your certificate and any sworn translation safe, because you will need them to update your passport, bank accounts and other records.
The most frequent problems are giving notice too early so the CNI expires, assuming every Comune follows the same rules, mismatched spellings between passports and certificates, forgetting the apostille on the Statutory Declaration, and arriving in Italy too late for the declaration of intent. Booking a Town Hall appointment before confirming its document requirements is another classic error.
Plenty of British couples complete a short legal ceremony at their local register office and then hold a symbolic ceremony in Italy. You lose none of the romance, and you gain freedom over the venue, timing and vows, with no Italian paperwork at all. It is particularly popular for clifftop terraces, private villas and gardens that are not licensed for civil weddings.
Whichever route you choose, a Wedded Advisor can coordinate the legal paperwork with celebrants and specialists on the ground in Italy, alongside your venue, suppliers and guest travel. You can also keep your guest list, budget and RSVPs in one place with the free Wonderland Studio planning tools, and browse more inspiration in our Italy destination wedding hub.
Written by
SEO Specialist
Ayrton Christian Braga is an SEO Specialist at Wedded Wonderland, where he writes optimized articles and web pages that center on destination weddings, cultural wedding traditions, and guides for everything in between.
