7 March 2024

A guide to the Certificate of No Impediment

The Certificate of No Impediment is an important document that you will need if you want to get married abroad. Learn about it in our blog.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Anyone going abroad to get married will likely need a Certificate of No Impediment (CNI). You might be wondering why.

Essentially, the certificate proves that you are free to get married, and that there are no legal objections to you getting married. For example, it proves that you are not already married.

There is also a document known as the ‘Letter of No Trace’ for people who are not British citizens, or for British citizens who live abroad. It is used to show that no wedding has taken place in the UK, with it stating that the British Government has no trace of a wedding.

For the above documents to be legally used abroad, you will also need to get them notarised and legalised. This is something that we can help you with.

Read on to learn more about the Certificate of No Impediment and its alternatives.

How to get a Certificate of No Impediment

To get a Certificate of No Impediment, you will need to contact your local Registry Office, as they are the ones who issue the certificate.

Once you have notified your local office of your intention to get married, you will have to wait around four weeks to be issued with your Certificate of No Impediment. This waiting period allows for any objections as to why you should not be able to get married to be made. If no objections are received, then you will get your certificate at the end of this waiting period.

You will be asked to provide some documents to support your application for a Certificate of No Impediment. We will tell you what you need to provide in the next section.

Letter of No Trace
For a Letter of No Trace, you will have to contact the General Registry Office instead of a local office. They will issue you with a certificate once you have given them all of the information they will ask you to provide.

The documents you will need to provide

The documents you will need to provide to support your application for the Certificate of No Impediment are as follows:

UK passport or full birth certificate for proof of your name and age
British Citizenship certificate instead of the above if you naturalised as a British citizen
Evidence of your marital status; for example, your divorce certificate or decree absolute, or a death certificate if you are a widow
Proof of address; for example, a utility bill, council tax bill, bank statement, or other type of bill
Change of name deed if your name has changed since your evidence of marital status documents were issued

Alternatives to the Certificate of No Impediment

Some countries do not accept the Certificate of No Impediment or the Letter of No Trace, so you will instead need whatever document applies to them. There is a tool provided by the British Government that allows you to see what documents you may have to take with you to get married abroad in different countries. You should also contact the local authority of where you plan to get married, so you know for certain what documents you need.

For example, if you were to get married in Turkey, you would need to contact the local registry office of where you want to get married to find out the local requirements. A registry office is known as a ‘evlendirme memurluğu’ in Turkey.

Additionally, instead of a Certificate of No Impediment, you would need to provide an affirmation or affidavit. In this case, an affirmation is not religious, while an affidavit is.

Some countries may ask that you provide a statutory declaration instead. This is also an option for people who cannot get a Certificate of No Impediment.

Affidavits and statutory declarations will need to be signed in the presence of a solicitor or Notary Public.

Commonwealth countries
Finally, if you are going to get married in a Commonwealth country such as Cyprus, then you will not be issued a Certificate of No Impediment. You will need to tell the local authorities of whatever Commonwealth country you are getting married in that you do not need a certificate.

However, you may still have to provide other documents, such as a Letter of No Trace, affidavit, or a statutory declaration.

What fees are involved?

Depending on what documents you need to get, you will be required to pay different fees.

For a Certificate of No Impediment, you will need to pay £35.

To get a Letter of No Trace, you will need to pay £50.

Any other documents, such as a statutory declaration or affidavit, may vary depending on how you get them drafted. We can help you with drafting them.

How long does a Certificate of No Impediment last?

In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the CNI does not expire. In Scotland, it lasts three months.

For other countries, you may have a limited window to use your certificate before it expires under their local laws, so make sure to check how long they are valid for. Make sure you get your CNI within enough time for your wedding.

In Italy for example, the certificate is valid for six months.

How we can help

Our expert Notary Public, Nathan Woodcock, can notarise your Certificate of No Impediment, Letter of No Trace, affidavit, or any other document that you are required to provide as proof that you can get married.

You can arrange a notary appointment at one of our offices in London, Manchester, or Sheffield. Alternatively, you can make use of our convenient mobile notary service, where our notary meets you at a suitable time and place of your choosing. For example, you can meet him at your home, an office, a café or anywhere else suitable.

Additionally, we can help you with consular legalisation, or with getting an apostille from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

For apostilles, we work closely with the FCDO, so we can get you an apostille in a timely manner. We offer a standard service which takes 10 to 15 days, and a fast-track service which takes 5 to 7 days.

To learn about the fees you can expect when you use our services, please feel free to view our webpage.

Get in touch with us today to talk to a member of our team, and see how we can help you with your Certificate of No Impediment.