A couple wants to marry in Spain and one of them is Australian. The Spanish Civil Registry asks for a document proving they're free to marry — and Australia does have exactly that document, called the Certificate of No Impediment. Its process has one feature that simplifies the rest of the file considerably: apostille goes through a single authority, no matter which state issued each document.
This guide covers the document package the Australian party needs for the prior marriage file before the Spanish Civil Registry — the general procedure is explained in our marriage to a foreign national guide — and the sworn translations each piece requires.
The Australian party's documents
Identity and birth
- A valid Australian passport.
- A birth certificate, issued by the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages of the state or territory of birth (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory). As with Canada, Australia has no federal civil registry — each state keeps its own. Request the full birth certificate (with parentage details), not the abridged commemorative extract — many Spanish Registries reject the latter.
Free to marry: the Certificate of No Impediment
The Spanish Civil Registry requires proof that the foreign party is free to marry. Australia does issue a document designed exactly for this: the Certificate of No Impediment (CNI).
How to get it:
- If the applicant is in Australia, it's requested at a DFAT passport office in their state capital.
- If they already live outside Australia — the more common situation for someone marrying in Spain — it's requested at the nearest Australian embassy or consulate.
There's no single validity period set by law: it's worth checking with your specific Civil Registry how many months old a CNI it will accept, since criteria vary between Registries.
If there was a previous marriage
- A divorce certificate from the state court that issued it, apostilled and with a sworn translation.
- In case of widowhood: a state death certificate for the deceased spouse, with the same treatment.
Residency registration
- A padrón (residency) certificate for each party, if the couple lives in Spain.
The Australian apostille: a single authority for everything
Here's the difference that simplifies the process compared with other English-speaking countries. In Canada or the United States, which body apostilles a document depends on the state or province that issued it. Not in Australia: the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is the country's only apostilling authority, both for state documents (birth certificates, divorce certificates) and for those it issues itself, such as the CNI. Within Australia, this is handled at DFAT passport offices in each capital; outside the country, at the relevant Australian embassy or consulate.
This doesn't remove the step, but it does avoid the most common mistake with other countries: sending the document to the wrong authority.
The exact requirements are set by each Civil Registry
Let's be honest: there's no single list valid for the whole of Spain. Each Civil Registry applies its own criteria on formats, certificate validity periods or supplementary documents. Before requesting anything in Australia, check your specific Registry's list and work from it. And if you're registering a civil partnership instead of marrying, the document package is nearly identical: we cover it in our registered partnership guide.
Sworn translations: what gets translated, and in what order
The Civil Registry only accepts translations from sworn translators accredited by the MAEC — a certified translation done in Australia isn't valid. The following require a sworn translation:
- State birth certificate + apostille.
- Certificate of No Impediment + apostille.
- Divorce or death certificate, if applicable, + apostille.
The correct order: apostille first, translation second, because the apostille is part of the document and gets translated along with it.
If your case is British or American, those have their own guides with their own particularities: getting married in Spain as a British national and getting married in Spain as an American.
Related pages
- Marriage to a foreign national in Spain — the full procedure, step by step.
- Civil partnership in Spain — the registered alternative, with nearly identical documentation.
→ Request my sworn translation
At Textualia we translate Australian marriage files from English into Spanish, signed by a sworn translator accredited by the MAEC and delivered as an electronically signed PDF, valid before every Civil Registry in Spain.