Getting Married in Malta as a Foreign Couple
How a foreign couple marries in Malta, from an evening I photographed on its coast: the Marriage Registry's calendar and documents, where and when the registrar can marry you, the fees and the best months.
One evening on the coast of Malta I photographed a bridal editorial, with no wedding and no couple that time: one bride in blush tulle, the sea, and a wind that stayed with us until dark. We followed the light from the shade under the trees until the sun dropped into the Mediterranean beside a headland. Malta took my breath away with how much it fits into a short walk: dry hills, gray ridges and beaches lie within reach of one another on foot, and the light changes with each.
If you're planning the real thing, Malta lets foreign couples marry with no residency requirement. The file goes to the Marriage Registry between three months and six weeks before the date, and the registrar marries until 19:00. A wild bay like the ones in those photographs is for portraits or a symbolic ceremony.
Above the sea, lit from behind
Can foreigners get married in Malta?
Yes. Malta has no residency requirement, and couples who live abroad start by email with the Marriage Registry, part of Malta's Public Registry (its FAQ). The calendar:
- About four months before: email pubreg.marriage.identita@gov.mt to confirm which documents you need, since some foreign ones expire, and, before you book, that your venue is approved
- Three months before, at the earliest: send the banns request (form RZ1, signed by both of you) and the RZ2 declaration, signed in front of a notary, solicitor or commissioner for oaths
- Six weeks before, at the latest: the file must be complete; later applications are rejected
- One or two days before: meet the registrar with your original passports
The file holds copies of your passports and, in original, your full birth certificates and a free-status certificate for each of you; the Registry keeps the originals. Where a country doesn't issue that certificate, a third-party affidavit replaces it: someone over 18 who knows you well, usually a relative, states that you have never married, or haven't remarried since a divorce, an annulment or a spouse's death. Forms, certificates and affidavits are valid for three months and must still be valid on the wedding day. Documents not in English or Maltese need an official translation, and a second nationality means your capacity to marry is checked for both.
The Registry's checklist for couples living abroad still asks for a copy of your Schengen entry stamp, which the EU's Entry/Exit System replaced on 10 April 2026, so ask the Registry what it takes instead.
US citizens use the same file. No US authority issues a certificate of no impediment, so ask the Registry by email whether the third-party affidavit is your route. The affidavit and the RZ2 declaration must both be signed within the three months before the wedding, so plan when and where you'll sign them.
You need at least one witness each and at most two each, aged 18 or over. Witnesses who live abroad send a copy of their passport and their home address, and you can replace a witness up to the date. The ceremony is in Maltese or English, with an interpreter if you need one. A marriage in Malta is generally recognized abroad, but check what your own country asks for; you order the certificate online or at the Public Registry offices in Malta and Gozo. Same-sex couples have been able to marry in Malta since 1 September 2017.
Where and when can the registrar marry you?
The registrar marries in the Marriage Room at the Registry's office in Marsa, or at a venue that is public, open to everyone and approved by the registrar. The Marriage Room holds 20 people, the two of you included. Photographers and videographers can come in, the ceremony takes about 20 minutes in a 30-minute slot, and food, drinks and confetti aren't allowed.
The registrar's hours are 14:15 to 19:00 on weekdays and 09:00 to 19:00 at weekends and on public holidays. There are no civil weddings on Good Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. If you both live abroad, the fee is €76.95 at the Registry and €102.60 at another location.
In Malta, a legal beach wedding is possible only on a beach that belongs to a hotel, with a wooden walkway and a platform for you and the registrar. Ask the hotel whether its beach has both before you book.
Civil or symbolic: which suits a Malta wedding?
Choose by the place, not the hour. Two hours before sunset falls inside the registrar's hours in every month, from about 14:45 in early December to about 18:15 at midsummer, so the light is never the obstacle. The place can be: a bay like the one in my photographs, with no walkway or platform, is outside the civil route.
My suggestion: if being legally married in Malta matters to you, hold the ceremony at a hotel, a palazzo garden or the registry, and keep the wild coast for portraits in the last hour of light. If your vows belong on the cliffs or the sand, make the ceremony symbolic and sign the papers at home.
A gray ridge above the bay, and the stony beach
When is the best time to get married in Malta?
May, June and September: warm and almost dry, with the sun setting between about 19:15 and 20:15 in mid-month. July and August are the hottest months, with average highs near 31 °C (87 °F), so keep the outdoor part to the last two hours of light. From October to February, 10 to 14 days a month see some rain.
The average daily high and the days with some rain (0.1 mm or more), month by month (World Meteorological Organization):
- April: 19 °C (66 °F), 6 days
- May: 23 °C (74 °F), 3 days
- June: 27.5 °C (81.5 °F), 1 day
- July: 31 °C (87 °F), under 1 day
- August: 31 °C (87 °F), 1 day
- September: 28 °C (82 °F), 4 days
- October: 24 °C (76 °F), 10 days
- November: 20 °C (68 °F), 11 days
The clocks go back on the last Sunday of October (31 October in 2027), and sunset moves an hour earlier overnight. Whatever the month, plan for the wind: on our evening it caught her hair and her skirt in nearly every photograph, so wear your hair down or loosely tied, and choose a dress that looks good moving.
Sunset beside the headland
How do you get to Malta?
You fly into Malta International Airport. Gozo is a ferry ride of about 25 minutes from Ċirkewwa to Mġarr, daily (Gozo Channel). Guests from the US, the UK, Canada and Australia need no visa for up to 90 days in any 180, and at the border they are registered in the EU's Entry/Exit System. The ETIAS travel authorization isn't running yet, and it will cost €20 once it starts.
Photographing your wedding or elopement in Malta
Malta is inside my European travel area: travel starts at €900, with my flights and stay included. Elopement collections start at €1,200, from a four-hour ceremony-and-portraits story to a full day, with 300 to 900+ edited photographs and a sneak peek within 10 days. Four hours covers a ceremony two hours before sunset and portraits until the sun goes down. Wedding collections start at €2,900 for a full day of up to 10 hours. See the elopement collections and the wedding collections.
If Malta is where you'd like to say your vows, write to me with your month, your guest count and whether the legal part happens there or at home. I'll tell you where and when I'd plan the ceremony for the light, and I'd love to hear what you're dreaming of.
Details checked in October 2026
Yana Yart
Yana Yart is a wedding and elopement photographer based in Cascais, Portugal, with over 15 years behind the camera in 55 countries. She studied architecture for five years, which is why every day she photographs is planned around the light.
