Getting Married in the Czech Republic: Documents and Certified Translations

Prague castles, historic town halls, a quick and legally solid ceremony — marrying in the Czech Republic is popular with expat couples for good reason. The paperwork, though, catches almost everyone off guard, especially one document that’s harder to get than it sounds. Here’s what you actually need, in what order, and where translation and legalization fit in.

For the broader picture of relocation documents, see our guide on moving to the Czech Republic. If you already have a foreign marriage certificate that needs recognition in Czechia rather than a wedding you’re planning, that’s a different process — see our guide on translating an existing marriage certificate for that scenario.

• The Certificate of No Impediment (CoNI) is the document that trips up the most couples — it’s only issued in your home country and has a tight validity window.
• EU citizens don’t need an apostille for their documents, just translation. Non-EU citizens typically do.
• Non-EU applicants also need a proof of legal residence from the Foreign Police that can’t be more than 7 days old on the wedding day.
• All foreign-language documents need certified translation, and you may need a court interpreter at the ceremony itself.

The exact list depends on your situation, but most foreign nationals marrying in the Czech Republic need to prepare the following:

Each registry office (matrika) can have its own specific requirements on top of this baseline, so it’s worth confirming with the office handling your ceremony before finalizing your document set.

This is the document that causes the most stress, and it deserves its own explanation.

The Certificate of No Impediment (Vysvědčení o právní způsobilosti k uzavření manželství) confirms that you’re legally free to marry — essentially, that you’re not already married elsewhere. It’s issued only by your country of citizenship, typically through your national consulate. That alone creates the first bottleneck: consular appointment slots for this kind of document can be booked out months in advance.

The certificate is valid for six months, counted from your wedding date — not from the date it was issued. Once you factor in the time needed for the apostille and certified translation, your actual window to use the certificate can be surprisingly narrow.

If your home country doesn’t issue this type of certificate at all, most Czech registry offices will accept a sworn affidavit instead — a signed statement confirming your marital status, often made at your embassy.

Whether your documents need authentication before translation depends entirely on your citizenship.

EU citizens generally don’t need an apostille at all — a certified translation into Czech is sufficient on its own.

Citizens of Hague Convention countries (including the US, UK, and Australia) need an apostille — a standardized authentication stamp obtained in their home country.

Citizens of non-Hague countries need superlegalization instead, a longer chain of authentication through their home country’s authorities and the Czech embassy or consulate.

Whichever applies to you, authentication always comes before translation — the apostille or superlegalization stamp gets translated along with the rest of the document. For a fuller breakdown of these three paths, see our relocation documents guide.

Non-EU applicants face an additional requirement: a certificate from the Czech Foreign Police confirming your legal stay in the country. This document cannot be older than 7 days on your wedding day — a narrow window that means you can’t simply collect it early and file it away with the rest of your paperwork.

EU and EEA citizens are exempt from this particular requirement.

Because of the short validity, this document needs to be requested last, once everything else in your file is essentially ready to submit.

Any document not already in Czech needs a certified translation produced by a court-appointed translator registered with the Czech Ministry of Justice. This applies to your birth certificate, CoNI or affidavit, and any divorce ruling or death certificate, once they’ve cleared the apostille or superlegalization step where applicable.

There’s a detail many couples don’t anticipate: if your Czech isn’t fluent enough to follow the ceremony itself (which is conducted in Czech), you’ll need a court interpreter present at the wedding ceremony — a separate service from document translation, but one that’s legally required for the ceremony to proceed. Arranging this in advance, alongside your document translations, avoids a last-minute scramble.

1. Choose your venue and date, then contact the matrika (civil registry office) with jurisdiction over that location to confirm availability and their specific document requirements.
2. Assemble your documents — CoNI or affidavit, birth certificate, and any other required documents, all legalized (where applicable) and certified-translated into Czech.
3. Submit your documents in person at the matrika and complete the Protocol on Contracting Marriage, which records your personal details and the names of your witnesses.
4. Attend the ceremony with two witnesses present, along with a court interpreter if needed. Fees are typically 2,000 CZK for a Czech citizen marrying a foreign national, or 3,000 CZK when both partners are foreign nationals.

Your Czech marriage certificate is issued in Czech and needs no translation for use with Czech authorities — for instance, if you’re submitting it to OAMP for a residence permit or family reunification.

If you need to use the certificate in your home country or elsewhere, you’ll typically need to get it apostilled and translated into the relevant language, following the same authentication logic that applied to your original documents.

We provide certified translations of your marriage documents and can arrange a court interpreter for your ceremony.