Documents needed to get married and publications.
What documents are needed to get married? Whether you are getting married by religious or civil ceremony what is the bureaucratic process to follow?
The first question to ask is: who can get married?
- Spouses must have free status. If they were previously married, they will have to prove that the bond has been annulled, is void, or was dissolved by divorce or widowhood
- Both spouses must be of sound mind
- There must be no kinship, affinity, affiliation or adoption between the two spouses
- The bride and groom must be at least 18 years old
Civil wedding
Even if you have decided to get married in a church, be aware that there will be a part of the ceremony devoted to reading the civil articles since religious marriage alone is not valid for legal purposes.
As a first step, an appointment must be made at theRegistrar’s Office where at least one of the bride and groom have their residence, to set the date and request the marriage banns. The documents to be submitted are:
- Identification document
- Family status
- Tax code
- Tax stamp
- Self-certification to be completed at the Registrar’s Office.
Marriage can be celebrated from the fourth day after the posting of the banns and no later than 180 days thereafter, as the certificate of executed banns is valid for 6 months.
The purpose of banns is to make known the intention of two people to enter into marriage, and today there is the possibility of requesting banns online.
If you want to get married in a municipality where neither of the 2 spouses has residence you will need to submit a special proxy.
In the case of a foreign spouse, on the other hand, the documents to be submitted in addition to those already seen are:
- Identification document that is internationally valid;
- Birth certificate;
- Clearance. A permit, given by one’s country to marry.
It must then be decided which property regime to adopt, whether community or separation of property.
If community property is decided, some of the property becomes the subject of community property between spouses. The following assets fall under community property between spouses: the fruits of each spouse’s own property (e.g., rent of a house); purchases made by both spouses during the marriage; businesses run by the spouses established after the marriage the and income from each spouse’s separate business.
Those who choose separation of property, on the other hand, agree to have sole ownership of their property before and after the wedding.
Religious wedding
First of all, it is necessary to make an appointment with the pastor and register for the premarital course. The documents for the church wedding are:
- Certificate of Baptism
- Confirmation Document
- Certificate of Ecclesiastical Free State
- Clearance if you will celebrate the wedding in a municipality other than your place of residence or in a different parish
- Certificate of participation in the premarital course
With these documents the bride and groom and the pastor fulfill the Marriage Consent. The parish priest then issues the request for Civil Publications, which are carried out in the municipality, and Religious Publications, for the parishes where the bride and groom reside.
After about three weeks, the bride and groom can return to the pastor, handing over the completed Civil and Religious Publications: at this point everything is ready.
If the marriage is celebrated in one’s own parish, nothing else is necessary; however, if it will take place in another church, then the pastor will give the State of the Documents and Civil Publications to the fellow pastor so that the celebration can proceed.
In case the marriage takes place in another diocese: an endorsement will be needed from the Curia of the home diocese and, often, also from the one where the wedding will be celebrated.
In the case of mixed marriages, the pastor submits a license to the Bishop or the Vicar General, which includes:
- Catholic’s attestation of not abandoning their faith
- The statement of the Catholic who undertakes to educate his or her child(ren) according to the principles of the Catholic religion
- Catholic’s document of leaving spouse free to profess his or her faith
- These statements must be signed by the Catholic party and served by the other party, along with the signature of the pastor.
Think you need help with documentation? Archievents can help you during these delicate steps!