Malta is one of the easier places in Europe to marry as a foreigner. There is no residency requirement, so you do not have to live here or arrive weeks early. What there is, is paperwork, and it has to be started well before you fly.
Give it three months, not six weeks
The notice goes to the Marriage Registry, part of the Public Registry, and the rule is at least six weeks before the date. In practice most people are told to make contact around three months ahead, because documents come from other countries and other countries are slow.
What they ask for
The documents
- Identity
- Passport or identity card for both of you.
- Birth certificate
- The full version, not the short one.
- Free status certificate
- Proof that neither of you is already married somewhere else. Non-Maltese partners are asked for this as a matter of course.
- If you have been married before
- The decree absolute, or the death certificate.
- If you have lived abroad
- Living outside your home country for more than twelve months usually means a sworn declaration, and sometimes a free status certificate from the country you were living in.
- Translation
- Anything not already in English or Maltese needs an official translation.
Civil or church
A civil ceremony is conducted by a Registrar. It can happen at the Marriage Registry itself or at an approved venue, which covers a long list of hotels, gardens, palazzos and historic sites.
A Catholic church wedding has civil effect here, so you do not need a second civil ceremony. The church has its own requirements on top of the state ones, and the parish will want considerably more notice than six weeks.
Choosing the month
May, June, September and October are the sensible months. July and August are reliably hot and the good venues are booked a long way ahead. Winter is mild but wet enough that an outdoor plan needs a roof behind it.
Check the village feast calendar before you fix a date. A feast in the village you are marrying in means closed roads, marching bands and fireworks until one in the morning. Some couples plan around it. Others plan into it.
The notice procedure, the forms and the current fees are published by Identità, which runs the Public Registry and the Marriage Registry.