Required Documents / Procedure (Religious Weddings)


The Marriage Registry provides also services for Civil Marriages. Those couples who opt for a Civil Marriage have to satisfy the same obligations and formalities requested for a religious marriage.
 
Not earlier than three months and not later than six weeks prior to the wedding date, you must make an appointment with the Marriage Registry to request the publication of Marriage Banns at the Public Registry of Malta.
 
For this appointment you must take with you:
 
a. Government Birth certificates of the Bride and Groom showing both parents' names (Maltese citizens can obtain these certificates that same day from the same building or online on www.certifikati.gov.mt)
 
b. Identity cards of Bride and Grooom and photocopies thereof
 (Driving License or Passport are accepted too)
 
c. Identity cards of the Witnesses and photocopies thereof
 (Driving License or Passport are accepted too)
 
d. Application Form RZ1 and Declaration Form RZ2 duly signed.  These forms will be provided by the Marriage Registry.
 
e. Foreigners only - Persons who have never been married must produce a Free Status Certificate from their local Registrar.  If the registrar cannot issue such a certificate, a declaration in the same sense by a member of the legal profession would be accepted, provided that the declaration is the legal person’s own, made after due research, and not your own affidavit.  Please read also this article - More Required Documents by Foreigners
 
 
Information required
The Marriage Registrar should also be given the following information on the meeting day:
 
a. The place, date and time of the wedding
b. The witnesses' place of work
c. Father's name of both witnesses
d. The surname which the bride will be using after marriage, ie: either keeping her maiden surname or taking her husband's.  For more info about the options available read this article (opens in a new window)
 
 
Place of Marriage
Religious Weddings are celebrated in the church of one’s denomination.
 
For contact details of Catholic Chaplains and other Religious Denominations in Malta and Gozo click here.  
 
One is advised to make certain of one’s place of marriage before requesting the Publication of Banns.  One should keep in mind that in order to change the place of marriage with which it had been originally notified, the Marriage Registry needs at least three weeks’ notice.
 
 
Ten days prior to the marriage date...
Ten days prior to the marriage date the couple are to collect three documents prepared by the Marriage Registry and submit them to the Parish Priest of the place where the wedding ceremony will be held.
 
 
After the Wedding Celebration...
Immediately after the wedding celebration has taken place, the celebrant reads the certificate aloud to both of you to make sure there are no misprints or irregularities. Then, together with the witnesses and the celebrant, the marriage certificate is signed in the following order:
 
1.      The bride
2.      The groom
3.      The witnesses
4.      The celebrant
 




Important:  The bride signs her maiden surname and not her ‘new’ surname.
 
A copy of the certificate is kept in the church’s archives while the parish priest sends another copy to the Public Registry.