Civil union in Cyprus: partnership, marriage, documents and costs

Two different things get called the same thing in conversation, and they are not interchangeable. Before anything else, work out which one you actually want.

	Civil partnership	Civil marriage
Registered by	The District Officer, acting as Registrar	A Marriage Officer at a municipality
Where	District Administration Office	Municipality
Governed by	Civil Union Law of 2015	Marriage Law
Waiting period	By appointment	15 clear days after notice, up to 3 months
Open to	Same-sex and opposite-sex couples	Same-sex and opposite-sex couples

Both create a legal relationship. They are separate procedures, in separate offices, with separate fees.

Civil partnership: how it works

You attend in person, by appointment, before the District Officer, at the district where one of you lives — or, if neither of you lives in Cyprus permanently, at a district of your choosing.

Two witnesses, at least 18 years old and of sound mind, co-sign the agreement.

You submit a completed and signed Form of Civil Union, with identity documents or passports, an affidavit, and the non-impediment certificate. Once the fee is paid, the Registrar issues both partners with a stamped and signed Certificate of Civil Union, dated the day it was contracted.

Civil marriage: how it works

You give notice of marriage at a municipality. Under the ordinary procedure the marriage takes place at least 15 clear days later and no more than three months later — that window is the part people plan around badly.

If you need to marry sooner, a special licence allows the marriage on the day of application, provided the Marriage Officer accepts the reason as adequate. It costs substantially more.

What a foreign national has to produce

This is where the time goes, and where our clients almost always need help.

• A valid passport
• A birth certificate
• A certificate of no impediment from the competent authority of their own country — confirming they are free to marry or enter a partnership
• Where divorced, the decree absolute; where widowed, the spouse's death certificate
• If the foreign national is a permanent resident of Cyprus, an additional non-impediment certificate from the Civil Registry and Migration Department

Every foreign document must be in Greek or English, or officially translated into one of them, and validated by the competent authority or embassy. In practice that means an apostille and a certified translation — and both take longer than the registration itself.

Certificates of no impediment also expire. Obtaining one too early is as much of a problem as obtaining it too late.

What it costs

Civil partnership — set nationally:

Contracting the civil union	€90
Extra Certificate of Civil Union	€15
Non-impediment certificate, per person	€34.17

Civil marriage — set by each municipality, so confirm with the one you are using. Commonly quoted:

Ordinary procedure (notice of marriage)	around €128.15
Special licence (marry sooner)	around €281

On top of either, budget for the apostille and certified translation of each foreign document, and for a fresh copy of any certificate that has aged out.

What it does not do

It does not give you residence. A partnership or marriage does not by itself regularise anyone's stay — that runs through the Migration Department and is covered in residence permits in Cyprus.

It does not give you citizenship. Marriage or civil partnership with a Cypriot citizen opens a separate application, made on form M125, with its own conditions and its own timeline. It is a route, not an outcome.

Common mistakes

Confusing the two procedures. Different office, different law, different fee.

Booking a date before the documents exist. The apostille and translation chain is the long pole, not the appointment.

Letting the non-impediment certificate expire. They have a validity period.

Assuming a foreign divorce is enough on its own. The decree needs to be properly authenticated to be accepted here.

Expecting immigration status to follow. It does not, and the two processes run separately.

What we do

We work backwards from the date you want. That means identifying every document each of you needs, obtaining what can be obtained here, and getting the foreign documents apostilled and translated in the right order — which is the part that determines whether the date is realistic.

We book the appointment, prepare the forms, tell you exactly what to bring and who your witnesses need to be, and go with you if the meeting is in Greek. Afterwards we handle the certified copies, plus the apostille and translation of your own certificate if it needs to be recognised abroad.

Fees and requirements are set by the Ministry and by individual municipalities, and they change. The figures above are for planning; we confirm the current position before anything is booked. Tell us both nationalities and where you each live now, and we will tell you what the two of you specifically need.