The legalization office at the Prefettura of Rome sits on Via Stendhal, hands out service numbers from 8:30am, closes its counter at noon, and does not open on Wednesdays. It is a small, dull, enormously important fact, and it shapes more Italian elopement weeks than any cliff or castle on your shortlist.
We plan elopements across Italy every year, and the paperwork question that reaches us most often is the one in the title. Couples read about the Atto Notorio on one site and the Nulla Osta on another, assume the two are alternatives, and try to work out which one their comune will ask for. The answer is briefly annoying and then genuinely reassuring: as US citizens you need both, and only one of them leaves you a real decision to make.
What follows is the chain as the offices that issue these documents describe it, in the order you build it, counted backwards from your ceremony hour.
Both, and the only choice is where you swear it
US citizens marrying in Italy need both documents. The Dichiarazione Giurata, widely called the Nulla Osta, is sworn before a US consular officer in Italy and legalized by an Italian Prefettura. The Atto Notorio is an additional declaration made with witnesses, either at an Italian consulate in the United States or before a court official in Italy.
Where the Atto Notorio route does most of its work
Fiddly is the right word for it. Nothing here is legally difficult and nothing is left to an official’s mood. Every step is published, every office is named, and American couples complete this chain all season long. What makes it feel hard is that the steps are strictly sequential and about half of them happen before you leave home. An apostille cannot be attached to a birth certificate you have not ordered yet, and the Italian consulate in Philadelphia will not offer an appointment until it has reviewed your full document set by email first.
The route was built for visiting couples rather than residents. At the consulate stage, your witnesses swear that they personally know you, that you are a resident of the United States, and that there is no objection to your marrying in Italy. Nobody expects you to live in the country. They expect your file to arrive in order. Our guide to planning an elopement covers the parts of the week that are not clerical.
The paper chain in the order you have to build it
Build it top to bottom. Each item depends on the one above it, which is exactly why the chain stalls for couples who start in the middle.
- Long-form birth certificate for each of you, showing both parents’ names. Abstract and short-form versions get sent back.
- Apostille on the birth certificate, issued by the Secretary of State of the state where the birth took place. The apostille attaches to the certificate, so the certificate has to exist first.
- Italian translation of the birth certificate. The apostille itself does not need translating. Who is allowed to translate is decided by the office receiving the file: the Philadelphia consulate publishes contacts for professional translators, while Boston asks that a divorce decree be translated by a professional translator and that the translation itself carry an apostille.
- Evidence that a previous marriage ended, where that applies. A final divorce decree, or the corresponding certificate for a previous spouse if you were widowed, apostilled and translated. Detroit also asks for a certificate of No Appeal from the County Clerk where the divorce was registered, plus a signed statement from the County Clerk’s vital records division showing no record of a current marriage, each carrying an apostille and neither needing translation.
- Passports and driver’s licenses, copied for both of you. Serving members of the US Armed Forces also need consent to the marriage from their commanding officer.
- Witnesses lined up, with their names, dates and places of birth and addresses sent ahead. They must be over 18, hold valid photo ID, appear in person, and be unrelated to either of you. Houston states that they must be unrelated to each other as well.
- The Atto Notorio itself, sworn at the Italian consulate with jurisdiction over where you live, or before a court official in Italy if you would rather handle it there.
- The Dichiarazione Giurata, at the US Embassy or a US consulate in Italy. Print and complete the form for the post you are attending and leave it unsigned, because it has to be signed in front of the consular officer. The notarial fee is $50 per seal.
- Prefettura legalization of the Dichiarazione Giurata. This has to happen at a Prefettura inside the jurisdiction of the post that issued it.
- Declaration of Intention to Marry, made at the marriage office of the comune where you are marrying, with the whole file in hand.
- Apostille on your Italian marriage certificate afterwards. The Boston consulate advises requesting the certificate and having it legalized with an apostille at the competent Prefecture before you leave Italian territory.
Item eleven is the one couples forget, because by then the ring is on and the terrace is behind you. It is also the item that decides how easily your marriage is recognized when you get home, so we put it in the timeline as a real appointment rather than an errand.
Your Italian consulate at home, or a courthouse in Italy
This is the only genuine fork in the road, and the two routes look nothing alike in practice.
| Atto Notorio | Italian consulate in the US | Court in Italy |
|---|---|---|
| Where | The consulate with jurisdiction over your state of residence | The Ufficio Atti Notori of the tribunale in the city where you are marrying, or another Italian court |
| Witnesses | Four, over 18, not family, in person with photo ID | Two, in the US Embassy’s description of the court route |
| Timing | Before you fly, once the consulate has reviewed your documents | Ready for pickup in four to 10 days, or issued on the spot as an urgent request |
| What you pay | The consular tariff, published on each consulate’s fees page | Two revenue stamps of 16 euros and one of 10.62 euros, or one of 31.86 euros for the urgent version |
| Language | Handled inside the consulate | An interpreter is required if the applicant or any witness does not speak Italian |
| Also bring | Copies of passports and licenses for you and every witness | Proof of legal entry to Italy for you, the witnesses and the interpreter: a plane ticket, visa or permesso di soggiorno |
The witness count is the one place where published guidance genuinely differs, and the resolution is simple. The office taking the oath sets the number. Italian consulates in the United States publish four witnesses, over 18, unrelated to either of you. The US Embassy in Italy describes the court route with two. Follow the office you are standing in front of, and if you are doing this at home, turn up with four.
We steer almost every couple toward the home-country route, and the Embassy gives the same advice for the same reason: some Italian courts run long waiting lists for this service. It also means you land in Italy with the slower half of the work already behind you, which changes the mood of the week considerably.
Build the calendar around where you swear the declaration
Two timelines matter. The real minimum, which is what the offices will allow, and the comfortable minimum, which is what we build to.
The real minimum on the ground in Italy is several working days. The Embassy’s guidance is plain about it: allow several days for the procedures, and expect waiting lists in the busier towns in May, June and September. Three offices see you before the registrar does, and one of those keeps morning hours only.
The comfortable minimum is a full working week, and in Rome it falls out like this. Land on Sunday. Monday, the notarial appointment at the Embassy for the Dichiarazione Giurata. Tuesday, the Prefettura on Via Stendhal, in the first hour after the numbers go out at 8:30am. Wednesday is dead, because the legalization counter is closed, so it becomes a driving day or a scouting day. Thursday, the comune and the Declaration of Intention to Marry. Friday, the ceremony, timed to the light rather than to the queue.
Backwards from the date at home, the sequence is certificate, apostille, translation, then the Atto Notorio appointment. Start four to six months out and the chain never once feels rushed. Our regional elopement guides are the place to work out which month gives you the light you want before you fix the date the paperwork hangs off.
The small print that decides your last week
This is the section other guides leave out, and it is where the week is actually won.
One spelling of your name, everywhere. The consulate’s rule is that the name on the document has to match the name on your ID. Middle names, hyphens and a maiden name that appears on a birth certificate but not on a passport are the usual culprits. Choose the passport spelling and use it on the translation, the Atto Notorio and the Dichiarazione Giurata.
Do not sign anything early. The Dichiarazione Giurata form is printed and completed in advance but signed in front of the consular officer. The fee is charged per notary seal, so two of you means two seals, and in Rome payment now runs through the government’s online payment system rather than a cashier window.
The Prefettura has to match the consulate. A Dichiarazione Giurata issued in Milan can be legalized at any Prefettura inside Milan’s jurisdiction, while one issued by the consular agencies in Venice or Genoa has to be legalized by the Prefettura in Venice or Genoa respectively. The Prefettura nearest your venue is not automatically the right one.
A few more things worth knowing before the week starts:
- Revenue stamps come from a tabaccheria, not from the counter that asks for them. Buy the marche da bollo the afternoon before.
- Validity windows are set by the issuing office and the published figures differ. Philadelphia states 90 days for the Atto Notorio, within which the wedding has to take place; some Italian consulates elsewhere publish six months. Ninety days is the safe outer limit when you count backwards.
- Philadelphia reviews your scanned documents by email before it offers an appointment, so the appointment is not the beginning of the process.
- If one of you is a woman whose previous marriage ended within the last 300 days, Italian procedure asks for a waiver from the Procura della Repubblica at the court in the city where the marriage will be performed. Worth learning early, because it adds an office to the list.
- A religious ceremony led by non-Roman Catholic clergy needs a civil ceremony beforehand for the marriage to be legally valid, which puts two ceremonies in one week and makes the running order matter.
Fees and deadlines quoted here were correct at the time of writing and are worth re-checking with the office that issues them. Offices also move their hours, which is why we confirm the current opening pattern of the specific Prefettura and comune while we are still building your timeline, not the week you fly.
If you already have a region and a rough month in mind, send them over and we will map the office week around your light. Tell Us Your Story
Legal at home, ceremony on an Amalfi terrace
A good share of the couples we photograph in Italy are already legally married when they land. County clerk at home on a Tuesday morning, two witnesses, twenty minutes, no apostilles and no translations. Then Italy belongs entirely to the ceremony, and this is a genuinely excellent way to do it rather than a fallback.
What changes is the week. No consular appointment, no Prefettura morning, no interpreter standing between you and the registrar, no comune diary deciding your ceremony hour. You can hold the vows at 6:40pm on a terrace above Praiano because that is when the light comes off the water, instead of at 11am because that is the slot the registrar had.
What does not change is anything you actually came for. A celebrant, your own words, rings, witnesses if you want them, the walk down afterwards while the sea goes copper. Nothing in the photographs or the film knows the difference, and you can see how both routes look finished in our elopement films and galleries. Highlights reach you in 5 days either way, and the full gallery or film in 3 weeks.
For same-sex couples, Italy’s route is a civil union rather than a marriage, and the US Embassy publishes separate guidance for entering into one, with the same requirement for two witnesses and an interpreter where needed. Many couples in that position complete the legal marriage at home and give the whole Italian day to the ceremony. Tell us which of those you want and we will build the day around it.
Where the legal route is concerned, the ceremony hour and the good light almost never line up by chance, so we hold provisional dates against registrar availability and work the timeline back from sunset. Having a photographer and a filmmaker both on the ground helps here: one stays inside for the register signing and the reading of the civil code, the other holds the wider frame on the loggia, and the room never has to be staged twice. On the Expedition, professional audio catches the vows where conditions allow.
Our side of the work is destination and location design, a timeline built around light and real travel time, permit research and logistics guidance, and a weather alternative held in reserve. What stays with you is the paperwork itself, along with the government, venue and landowner fees, the celebrant and the interpreter. We are photographers and filmmakers, not lawyers. Rules change and circumstances differ, so confirm the detail with the relevant registry office or your own consulate before you book flights.
Coverage runs as one full day with a dedicated photographer or filmmaker, one full day with both working together, or a multi-day Odyssey across one or several destinations, and the shapes are laid out on our pricing page.
Common questions
Do we need both the Atto Notorio and the Nulla Osta to get married in Italy?
Yes. The US Embassy in Italy describes the Atto Notorio as a declaration in addition to the Dichiarazione Giurata, which is the document most sites call the Nulla Osta. One is sworn by you before a US consular officer in Italy and legalized by a Prefettura. The other is sworn with witnesses, either at an Italian consulate at home or before a court official in Italy.
Can we get the Atto Notorio after we arrive in Italy?
Yes, at the Ufficio Atti Notori of a court. Allow four to 10 days for pickup, or ask for the urgent version issued on the spot. You need two revenue stamps of 16 euros and one of 10.62 euros, or one of 31.86 euros for the urgent version, plus an interpreter if you or a witness does not speak Italian. Busy courts run waiting lists, which is why the Embassy suggests handling it at home instead.
How many witnesses does the Atto Notorio need?
The office taking the oath decides. Italian consulates in the United States publish four witnesses, over 18, with photo ID, unrelated to either of you, and Houston adds that they must not be related to each other. The US Embassy describes the court route in Italy with two. If you are swearing it at home, arrive with four.
How long is the Atto Notorio valid?
The issuing office sets the window and the published figures differ. The Philadelphia consulate states 90 days, within which the wedding has to take place, while some Italian consulates elsewhere publish six months. Work to the window your own consulate publishes, and treat 90 days as the safe outer limit when counting backwards from the date.
Does our birth certificate need an apostille and an Italian translation?
Yes. Consulates ask for the long-form certificate showing both parents’ names, carrying an apostille from the Secretary of State of the state that issued it, with an Italian translation attached. The apostille itself is not translated. Who may translate depends on the office and the document, so use the translator contacts your own consulate publishes.
How many days before the wedding do we need to be in Italy?
Allow several working days. The Embassy advises planning ahead and expects waiting lists in the popular towns in May, June and September. We build a working-week shape: the US consular appointment, then the Prefettura, then the comune, then the ceremony. In Rome the legalization office opens Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings only, which sets the rhythm of the whole week.
Do we need an interpreter and witnesses at an Italian civil ceremony?
The ceremony is performed by the mayor or one of his deputies, with two witnesses present and an interpreter if one is needed. Witnesses may be of any nationality, must be over 18 and must carry valid photo ID. The Embassy’s guidance keeps the two roles apart, so the person interpreting is not also one of your witnesses.
Can same-sex couples marry legally in Italy?
Italy’s route for same-sex couples is a civil union rather than a marriage, and the US Embassy publishes separate guidance for entering into one, with two witnesses and an interpreter where needed. Many couples complete the legal marriage at home and give the entire Italian day to the ceremony, which changes nothing about how we plan, photograph or film it.
Before you book flights
Fix the ceremony date first, then let the paper chain hang off it. Once the date and the comune are settled, the rest is a sequence of named offices with published hours, and we build the week so that the light and not the queue decides when you say your vows. We are booking 2027, 2028 and 2029 across Italy, from the Dolomites down to the Amalfi cliffs.
Everything on our side happens in writing, so there is nothing to arrange before you write. Send the region, the rough month and whether you want the legal marriage in Italy or at home, and our reply with the brochure reaches you within 24 hours. Check Your Date