Getting Married in France as an American: The One-Month Rule and the Documents (2026)

Yes, an American can get legally married in France: two foreigners can marry there, so can a foreigner and a French citizen, and same-sex couples marry under the same conditions. What decides most American cases is the link with the commune: one of you, or a parent of one of you, must have a domicile there, or a residence established by at least one month of continuous habitation on the day the banns are published. This guide covers that rule and what it means for a destination wedding, the file, the banns, the ceremony, the cost, and what the marriage changes afterward. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Rules change, and your situation may differ: always verify current requirements with the relevant French authorities or a licensed professional.

Can Americans Get Legally Married in France?

Yes. The conditions French law sets are age, consent and being free to marry, not nationality: the official page on marriage in France (service-public.gouv.fr, verified on September 16, 2026) applies the same ones to every couple, and adds only that rules specific to your nationality may apply if you are a foreigner.

• Age. Each of you must be at least 18.
• Free to marry. A person already married, under French or foreign law, cannot marry a second time. Someone legally separated or in the middle of a divorce still counts as married.
• Consent. Each of you must give free and informed consent.
• Family ties. Marriage is forbidden between close relatives.
• Same-sex couples. Article 143 of the Code civil: marriage is contracted by two people of different sex or of the same sex.

Article 202-1 of the Code civil has these conditions governed, for each spouse, by his or her personal law, which is why a mairie (town hall) can ask an American for a document about US marriage law. It also lets two people of the same sex marry when the personal law of at least one of them, or the law of the country where one of them lives, allows it, a test US law meets: see what French recognition of a same-sex marriage covers.

Where You Can Marry: The Link With the Commune

You marry in a commune with which at least one of you has a lasting link (lien durable): the commune of the domicile or residence of one of you, or of the domicile or residence of a parent (father or mother) of one of you. A residence counts only if it is established by at least one month of continuous habitation on the date the banns are published.

The rule is Article 74 of the Code civil. The civil registrar (officier de l’état civil) checks that the link exists, on a proof of domicile or residence dated more than one month back. If you are in a short-term rental, what counts as proof of address when you are in an Airbnb shows what you can produce.

This is the rule often called the 40-day rule: one month of residence, then 10 days of banns. In Paris, the commune is the arrondissement.

Can You Get Married in France Without Living There?

Not legally, unless one of you has the link described above. A couple who flies in for a week has neither a domicile nor a month of residence, and service-public describes no exemption for visitors.

What the rules leave open:

• One of you spends the month in France. A residence can be temporary, but the registrar decides whether the link is there. Ask the mairie what proof it accepts before you book anything.
• A parent lives in France. The commune of the father or mother of either of you qualifies.
• Neither applies. The legal marriage takes place elsewhere, and what you hold in France is a ceremony without legal effect. France treats a marriage as validly celebrated when it followed the formalities of the country where it took place (Article 202-2 of the Code civil), so a wedding under the law of your own state is a marriage for France too.

Two consequences follow. A mairie cannot marry you again afterward, since a person already married under a foreign law cannot marry a second time. And if one of you is French, the US wedding is transcribed onto the French civil registers to have effect toward the French administration, a step set out in the guide to French citizenship by marriage.

What Documents Do You Need to Get Married in France?

Each of you gives the mairie an identity document, a proof of domicile or residence, a birth certificate and the details of your witnesses, all as originals. A foreigner can be asked for two more, the certificat de coutume and the certificat de célibat. Service-public has a simulator that lists the documents for your case.

The six months of the birth certificate are counted back from the day you file. No time limit applies when the record comes from a country that does not update its records, on an attestation saying so from your embassy, your consulate or another authorized authority of your country. Service-public does not say which rule a US birth certificate falls under: ask your mairie.

The Certificat de Coutume and the Certificat de Célibat

A certificat de coutume sets out the foreign rules that apply to marriage. A certificat de célibat (also called certificat de capacité matrimoniale) proves that you are not already married. Service-public says both are, in general, provided by your embassy or consulate.

The American case differs. Marriage records in the United States are held by the states, so neither the US Embassy nor any federal office issues either certificate. US citizens sign an attestation tenant lieu de certificat de coutume et de célibat, a statement that they are free to marry, and can have their signature legalized at the local mairie with a valid US passport (U.S. Embassy in France).

Service-public sets out what is asked when a country issues no certificat de coutume:

1. An attestation from the competent authorities of that country saying so.
2. An attestation by a lawyer or jurist setting out the marriage rules of your country of origin.
3. If that is not possible, a sworn statement that you are of age, single and legally capable.

A mairie that asks for a lawyer’s attestation on US marriage law is therefore following the official list. Get your mairie’s list in writing before you order anything.

Translations and Apostilles

Any document in a foreign language must be translated by a sworn translator (traducteur assermenté), meaning an expert on the lists of the cours d’appel or the Cour de cassation. A US civil status record also needs an apostille: the French Foreign Ministry’s table of legalization rules (updated September 15, 2026) marks “apostille” for civil status records exchanged between France and the United States. It comes from the Secretary of State of the issuing state: see apostilles and certified translations for US documents and, from France, getting US documents apostilled without flying back.

The Interview, the Banns and How Long It Takes

The law fixes two delays. A residence, where you rely on one, must have lasted one month by the day the banns are published, and the banns (publication des bans, the public notice of the marriage) stay posted for 10 days. The wedding cannot take place before the tenth day after publication, and it must take place within the year that follows.

The interview. Article 63 of the Code civil makes the publication of the banns depend on it. It is skipped only when it is impossible or when the registrar judges it unnecessary in view of the file. If one of you lives abroad, the French consulate can hold it. The registrar can ask for an interpreter, at your expense if paid. Serious signs of a marriage without consent, or contracted for a purpose other than married life, go to the prosecutor.

How long in practice. No official page gives a national figure for the time between filing and the ceremony. The City of Paris (page updated February 5, 2026) asks for a minimum of 4 weeks, more when the file is incomplete. For a couple relying on a residence, the floor is one month plus 10 days, and it has to fit inside your stay: Americans can spend 90 days in any 180-day period in France without a visa.

The Civil Ceremony at the Mairie: The Only One With Legal Effect

Only the civil ceremony makes you married. Article 165 of the Code civil has the marriage celebrated publicly, in a republican ceremony, by the civil registrar of the commune, and service-public states that a religious marriage cannot be celebrated before the civil one.

• Place and celebrant. At the mairie, in a room open to the public, by the mayor or a deputy, with both of you and your witnesses present. The mayor can use another communal building. A ceremony in a château, a garden or a church is religious or symbolic, and it comes after the mairie.
• Witnesses. At least 2 and at most 4 (page verified on October 9, 2026). They must be at least 18, can be foreign and can be relatives. They bring their identity document and stay until they have signed the register.
• Interpreter. A translator-interpreter can attend, at your expense if paid, and a witness who does not understand French can bring one. The City of Paris makes an interpreter mandatory when a spouse has difficulty understanding French: ask your mairie.
• What happens. Under Article 75, the registrar reads you several articles of the Code civil, asks whether you signed a marriage contract, receives from each of you the declaration that you take the other as spouse, pronounces that you are united by marriage, and draws up the record on the spot.

How Much Does It Cost to Get Married in France?

Service-public names no fee for the marriage file, the banns or the ceremony at the mairie. The amounts the official pages do give concern what surrounds the wedding.

Confirm with the mairie that marries you that nothing is charged. A château or a venue in the south of France charges a private rate, which no official page sets and this guide does not estimate.

The Marriage Contract and the Default Property Regime

A marriage contract is optional. Without one you are automatically under the legal regime, the communauté réduite aux acquêts: what either of you acquires for payment during the marriage is common, and what each of you owned before the wedding or receives by gift or inheritance stays personal (service-public, verified on April 27, 2026).

To choose another regime (separation of property, universal community, participation in acquisitions), you sign a contract in front of a notaire before the wedding, and the notaire’s certificate goes into your file. Service-public calls the notaire’s advice particularly important when one of you is not French, because the rules of your countries of origin can conflict. Raise inheritance in the same meeting, with French inheritance law for Americans, what a US citizen can leave a French spouse free of US estate tax and finding English-speaking notaires and lawyers in France in hand.

The Livret de Famille and the Marriage Certificate

You leave the mairie with a livret de famille (family record book), handed to you free of charge at the end of the ceremony, whatever your nationalities. In the days that follow you can ask the mairie for a full copy (copie intégrale) or an extract of the marriage record (acte de mariage), which is the proof of your marriage.

• The livret holds an extract of your marriage record. You will need it later, for example to declare a birth in France.
• Copies and extracts of the marriage record are free in every case, requested online, by mail or at the counter of the mairie where you married. Service-public warns against websites that charge for the request.
• For use in the United States, a French record takes an apostille, issued by France’s notaries since May 1, 2025 and requested online.
• If the two of you were bound by a PACS (pacte civil de solidarité, the French civil partnership), the marriage dissolves it automatically.

Is a French Marriage Recognized in the United States?

Recognition under state law is a question for the state where you live, and this guide gives no rule for it. Two federal agencies do publish their own rule, each for its own field.

• Immigration. The USCIS Policy Manual (current as of October 2, 2026) applies the place-of-celebration rule: in general, the legal validity of a marriage is determined by the law of the place where the marriage was celebrated. It also lists exceptions.
• Federal tax. IRS Publication 501 (2025 edition) recognizes as married, for federal tax purposes, two people whose relationship is called a marriage under the laws of a foreign jurisdiction, if it would be recognized as a marriage under the laws of at least one US state or territory. See US taxes when you live in France for what you keep filing.

Your proof is French: USA.gov sends people who married abroad to the country of the wedding for their marriage records.

What Marriage Changes for Your Right to Stay in France

Marrying in France gives an American neither French nationality nor an automatic residence permit: marriage has no automatic effect on nationality, and the right to stay is a separate file. If your spouse is French, the marriage opens the spouse’s visa and residence permit. If neither of you is French, it opens nothing by itself.

• Your spouse is French. From the United States, you apply for the long-stay visa described in moving to France as the American spouse of a French citizen and in the conjoint de Français checklist. From inside France, service-public (verified on May 1, 2026) describes a one-year vie privée et familiale card for a person who entered with a short-stay visa, married a French citizen in France and shows 6 months of shared life there. An American enters without a visa: ask your prefecture how that case applies to you, after reading changing your visa status while already in France.
• Neither of you is French. Each of you needs a basis of your own, starting with the long-stay visa for Americans.
• Nationality. The spouse of a French citizen can sign a declaration after four years of marriage, five in one case, with B2 French, and keeps the US passport, as dual French and US citizenship explains.

The comparison of PACS and marriage for binational couples shows what each union does for a residence permit.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Each of these follows from a rule above.

• Booking a venue and a date before a mairie has confirmed that it can marry you.
• Counting on a week in France: a residence must have lasted one month before the banns are published.
• Treating the ceremony at the château or the church as the wedding.
• Arriving with a US birth certificate that has no apostille or no sworn translation.
• Assuming the embassy attestation is enough everywhere: the official list also provides for a lawyer’s attestation.
• Leaving the marriage contract for after the wedding: it is signed before.
• Believing the wedding extends your 90 days or makes you French.

Practical Checklist

• Identify the commune where one of you, or a parent, has a domicile or one month of continuous residence.
• Ask that mairie, in writing, for its list for an American and its delay between filing and ceremony.
• Order your birth certificate from the state where you were born, with its apostille, then a sworn French translation.
• Sign the attestation that stands in for the certificat de coutume and the certificat de célibat.
• Gather a proof of domicile or residence dated more than one month back.
• Choose 2 to 4 witnesses and collect their details and identity documents.
• File at the mairie, attend the interview together, and book an interpreter if needed.
• After the ceremony, request copies of the marriage record and start your residence file.

When to Get Help

Most couples can file a marriage dossier themselves: the list is public and the mairie says what it wants. An outside view pays when the wedding and the right to stay have to be planned together: a date that must fit inside a 90-day stay, a choice between marrying in France or in the United States, a spouse visa to line up after the ceremony.

A consulting call puts your dates and documents in the right order before you book anything.

FAQ

Can two Americans get married in France?

Yes. Nationality is not a condition. What you need is the link with a commune: a domicile, one month of continuous residence by one of you before the banns are published, or a parent’s commune.

Can I get married in France on a tourist visa?

The official list asks for an identity document, such as a passport, and names no visa or residence permit. Americans need no visa for 90 days in any 180-day period, so the limit is time: the month of residence, the 10 days of banns and the mairie’s own delay must fit inside your stay. The wedding does not extend it.

How many witnesses do you need to get married in France?

At least 2 and at most 4. They must be 18 or older, can be foreign and can be members of your family.

How old do you have to be to get married in France?

18. Article 144 of the Code civil states that marriage cannot be contracted before the age of 18.

How do you get a marriage license in France?

There is no license to obtain. You file your documents with the mairie, which interviews you, publishes the banns for 10 days and then celebrates the marriage. The record drawn up at the ceremony is your marriage certificate.

Can I live in France if I marry a French citizen?

The marriage gives you access to a visa and a residence permit as the spouse of a French citizen, not a right to stay from the wedding day. You apply for the long-stay visa from the United States or, in the case service-public describes, for a card after 6 months of shared life in France.

Conclusion

An American can marry in France, to a French citizen or to another foreigner, provided one of you, or a parent, has a domicile or one month of continuous residence in the commune when the banns are published. The marriage is made at the mairie and nowhere else, after a file, an interview and 10 days of banns. Start with the mairie’s written list, and treat the residence permit as a separate file.