Civil marriage

There are a number of legal and administrative requirements to be met before you can get married. If you carefully read the marriage file that you can download below, you will find all the information you need. The marriage can only be celebrated in the commune where one of the future spouses has his or her legal residence. If there are any details that need clarifying, please do not hesitate to contact the Population Office.

Preparing a marriage file 

Depending on the country you come from, different documents are required. A list of these documents can be found in the file below. If your country is not on the list, please check with the population office.

One of the future spouses must show up at the registry office to hand over the file. Please make an appointment at the population office.

The application has to be complete before the wedding can be officially announced. The deadline for submitting the application is 2 months before the wedding date.

The type and quality of documents requested (e.g. <3 months old, original document, Hague apostille, etc.) are required by law and are non-negotiable.

Documents and their quality

1. All documents must be written in French, German or English, or be translated into one of these three languages by a translator approved and sworn in Luxembourg, or by your embassy or consulate (French translation recommended).
2. Each document for the marriage file must bear a recent date of issue, < 3 months for Luxembourg, < 6 months for foreign documents on the day of the application (except for birth certificates from different countries. Please contact the population office in charge of your file for further information).
3. If you are a citizen of a country outside the European Union and the European Economic Area (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein), all documents submitted for a marriage application must be apostilled or legalised. What is it all about? 
   • Apostille de La Haye : This is an agreement signed by a majority of countries that guarantees the authenticity of their documents issued with a special seal.  Please check on the Internet or with your civil registrar whether your country is a signatory. This apostille is generally issued by the ministry of foreign affairs in your country of origin.
   • Legalisation: Only if your country has not signed the La Haye Convention, documents have to be legalised at several levels. Please contact the consulate/embassy in your country for more information.  

Choosing a wedding date

The registrar will fix the wedding date together with you according to the possibilities of the office and the availability of the Mayor or an Alderman. There is no list of pre-set wedding dates available.

One of the dates proposed at your appointment will be confirmed within a few days. Only after this confirmation you can organize your wedding with your guests. The fixed date is guaranteed except in cases of force majeure. 

Weddings can be held every working day between 10:00 am and 12:00 pm or between 1:30 and 3:00 pm.  There are no weddings outside office hours or on weekends.

About the ceremony

The civil wedding ceremony is governed by Luxembourgish law and will normally take place in the wedding room of the town hall in Kopstal (28 rue de Saeul), where there is room for a maximum of 20 people (in addition to the couple).

Allow around 30 minutes for the civil ceremony and 30 minutes for the reception organised by the commune afterwards. 

The duty of the commune, and therefore the purpose of the civil marriage ceremony, is to marry you legally in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code. 

Of course, your guests are welcome, but it should be pointed out that this official event is not intended to serve as a kind of secular wedding (Freitrauung/mariage laïque), given the limited space and the limited duration of +- one hour. 

Your marriage will be registered in the National Register on the first working day following the marriage, and will be immediately visible to every Luxembourgish administration (State, Communes and Para-state (CNS, Caisse Pension)).

If you are from a country other than Luxembourg: It is your own duty to register your marriage with the civil authorities in that country. Otherwise, you will be legally married in Luxembourg but not in your country of origin. You will then be in a non-legal situation.

N.B: Any false declaration, attempted fraud or use of forgeries made before the Civil Registrar will be reported to the State Prosecutor and will be subject to criminal prosecution. A marriage concluded in this way is null and void.