You are British, you live in France or you are planning a French wedding, and you want the marriage itself to be valid under French law. Since Brexit ended free movement, the questions British couples ask at the mairie (the town hall) have changed: which papers prove you are free to marry when the United Kingdom issues no certificat de célibat (certificate of single status) and no certificat de coutume (certificate explaining your national marriage law), how long the bans take, whether the mayor can refuse you, and what happens if the procureur de la République (the public prosecutor) suspects a sham. This guide answers in practical order: the file two British citizens must lodge, the timetable from the bans to the ceremony, the audition (the interview) and the prosecutor’s opposition, and the court remedies that unblock a wedding. Every decisive statement below is anchored in the current wording of the Code civil (the Civil Code) as in force on 14 September 2026, in the official service-public.fr guidance, in the British government’s self-declaration procedure of May 2024, and in seven court decisions whose reasoning is quoted word for word: four judgments of the Cour de cassation (France’s highest civil court), a 2025 mainlevée (lifting of an opposition) judgment from Béthune, and a 2020 Versailles appeal decision. If you are marrying in Paris or elsewhere in the Île-de-France region, a dedicated passage tells you where your file is handled and what local practice to expect.
I. How do two British citizens get married in France after Brexit: papers, bans and ceremony?
A. Which documents does the mairie require from British citizens, and what replaces the certificat de coutume?
Start with the two golden rules. First, French law sets no residence or nationality condition for getting married: the substantive conditions are age and consent. Article 144 of the Civil Code provides: “Le mariage ne peut être contracté avant dix-huit ans révolus.” (article 144, Civil Code, on Légifrance) Marriage cannot be contracted before eighteen years of age. Article 146 adds the second pillar: “Il n’y a pas de mariage, lorsqu’il n’y a point de consentement.” (article 146, Civil Code, on Légifrance) There is no marriage where there is no consent. Everything the mairie asks you for serves these two checks: are you old enough, are you free, and do you genuinely consent.
Second, for everything else, each of you is governed by your own national law. Article 202-1 of the Civil Code states the conflict rule, and the Cour de cassation repeated it word for word on 18 May 2022 (First Civil Chamber, no. 21-11.106, published in the Bulletin, full judgment on courdecassation.fr): “les qualités et conditions requises pour pouvoir contracter mariage sont régies, pour chacun des époux, par sa loi personnelle. Quelle que soit la loi personnelle applicable, le mariage requiert le consentement des époux, au sens de l’article 146 et du premier alinéa de l’article 180.” The qualities and conditions required to contract marriage are governed, for each spouse, by his or her personal law; whatever personal law applies, marriage requires the consent of the spouses within the meaning of article 146 and the first paragraph of article 180. For two British citizens, that means English law decides whether you have capacity to marry, while French consent law applies regardless. The same judgment drew the practical consequence for couples where one spouse later claims the other never wanted a real marriage: “Il en résulte que l’action était en réalité fondée sur l’article 146 du code civil, de sorte que la loi française était applicable.” The action was in reality founded on article 146 of the Civil Code, so French law applied. Keep that sentence in mind, because it governs every sham-marriage dispute examined in Part II.
In concrete terms, the mairie will ask each of you for a valid passport, proof of address, a full birth certificate issued recently (British certificates normally need an apostille, the international stamp that authenticates a public document for use abroad, plus a certified translation by a traducteur assermenté, a sworn translator), the names and details of your witnesses (témoins, at least two and no more than four), and, where you sign one, the notaire’s certificate for your marriage contract (examined below). Foreign civil-status documents are in principle accepted: the Code provides that records drawn up abroad in local forms carry evidential weight unless verification shows irregularity, which is why the apostille and the sworn translation matter so much in practice (article 47, Civil Code, on Légifrance).
The specifically British difficulty is the certificat de coutume and the certificat de célibat. The service-public.fr guidance states that the mairie may require these nationality-specific documents: the certificat de coutume, generally supplied by your embassy or consulate, setting out the foreign rules applicable to the marriage, and the certificat de célibat (also called certificat de capacité matrimoniale, certificate of capacity to marry), proving you are not already married (Mariage en France, service-public.fr). The United Kingdom issues neither. The British answer, published by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on 3 May 2024, is a a self-declaration form with accompanying notes for British nationals marrying or registering a civil partnership (PACS) in France, designed to stand in for the certificates of single status and custom (Self declaration form for marriage in France, gov.uk) You swear a déclaration sur l’honneur (a sworn statement on your honour) that you are major, single and legally capable, using the FCDO form with its explanatory note that stands in for the missing certificates. Where a mairie has never seen the form, present the gov.uk page together with the service-public.fr passage explaining that, where the country of origin issues no certificat de coutume, the file may instead contain an attestation from the competent foreign authorities plus a statement of the applicable foreign law drawn up by a lawyer, or failing that, an attestation on honour that you are of age, single and legally capable. Ask the mairie early which version it wants, and get the answer in writing before you book anything.
Two further papers deserve attention before the file is lodged. If you sign a contrat de mariage (a marriage contract settling your property regime), it must be drawn up by a French notaire (a public officer with a monopoly on authentic instruments) before the wedding, with both parties present or represented: “Toutes les conventions matrimoniales seront rédigées par acte devant notaire, en la présence et avec le consentement simultanés de toutes les personnes qui y sont parties ou de leurs mandataires.” (article 1394, Civil Code, on Légifrance) And “Les conventions matrimoniales doivent être rédigées avant la célébration du mariage et ne peuvent prendre effet qu’au jour de cette célébration.” (article 1395, Civil Code, on Légifrance) Marriage contracts must be drawn up before the celebration and take effect only on the wedding day. For British couples who already own a French house together, this appointment is the moment to align the contract with the ownership structure rather than discovering the mismatch years later. The notaire then issues the certificate the mairie requires. Finally, remember where you may marry: “Le mariage sera célébré, au choix des époux, dans la commune où l’un d’eux, ou l’un de leurs parents, aura son domicile ou sa résidence établie par un mois au moins d’habitation continue à la date de la publication prévue par la loi.” (article 74, Civil Code, on Légifrance) The wedding takes place, at the couple’s choice, in the commune where one of them, or one of their parents, has domicile or one month’s continuous residence. A château wedding is legally possible only if that link exists; the fairy-tale venue without any local anchor cannot host the civil ceremony.
B. How do the bans, the timetable and the ceremony work, and where does Paris fit in?
Once the file is complete, the officier de l’état civil (the civil registrar, in practice the mayor or a deputy) publishes the bans. Article 63 of the Civil Code opens the sequence: “Avant la célébration du mariage, l’officier de l’état civil fera une publication par voie d’affiche apposée à la porte de la maison commune. Cette publication énoncera les prénoms, noms, professions, domiciles et résidences des futurs époux, ainsi que le lieu où le mariage devra être célébré.” (article 63, Civil Code, on Légifrance) Before the celebration, the registrar publishes by affiche (notice) on the town-hall door, stating both spouses’ first names, surnames, occupations, domiciles and residences, and the place of celebration. The service-public.fr guidance gives the working timetable (Mariage en France, service-public.fr): the notices stay displayed for ten days, and the wedding cannot take place before the tenth day after publication of the bans. If the bans go up on 4 June, the earliest wedding date is 14 June. The marriage must then be celebrated within the year following expiry of the ten-day period, and the date itself is fixed by agreement with the mairie once the file is complete and current.
Where one of you is in a genuine hurry, for serious reasons (a dying parent, a posting abroad, a medical emergency), the prosecutor can waive publication: “Le procureur de la République dans l’arrondissement duquel sera célébré le mariage peut dispenser, pour des causes graves, de la publication et de tout délai ou de l’affichage de la publication seulement.” (article 169, Civil Code, on Légifrance) The prosecutor of the district where the wedding will be celebrated may, for serious cause, dispense with publication and every time limit, or with display of the publication only. Ask through the mairie, evidence the grave cause in writing, and do not treat the waiver as automatic.
The ceremony itself follows a fixed ritual. “Le mariage sera célébré publiquement lors d’une cérémonie républicaine par l’officier de l’état civil de la commune dans laquelle l’un des époux, ou l’un de leurs parents, aura son domicile ou sa résidence à la date de la publication prévue par l’article 63 , et, en cas de dispense de publication, à la date de la dispense prévue à l’article 169 ci-après.” (article 165, Civil Code, on Légifrance) The wedding is celebrated publicly, in a republican ceremony, by the commune’s registrar. “Le jour désigné par les parties, après le délai de publication, l’officier de l’état civil, à la mairie, en présence d’au moins deux témoins, ou de quatre au plus, parents ou non des parties, fera lecture aux futurs époux des articles 212 et 213 , du premier alinéa des articles 214 et 215 , et de l’article 371-1 du présent code.” (article 75, Civil Code, on Légifrance) On the appointed day, at the mairie, with two to four witnesses, the registrar reads aloud the spouses’ core duties (respect, fidelity, support, assistance, joint direction of the family, children’s maintenance and education) and takes each consent. Two practical points British couples often miss: the civil ceremony must come first, since celebrating a religious marriage before the civil one is prohibited, and the registrar acts as the mayor in that capacity because “Le maire et les adjoints sont officiers d’état civil.” (article L. 2122-32, General Code of Local Authorities, on Légifrance) The mayor and deputies are civil registrars.
In Paris and the Île-de-France, the mechanics are the same but the counters differ. In Paris, the file goes to the mairie of the arrondissement of domicile or residence (the one-month rule of article 74 applies street by street), the bans are displayed at that mairie, and the ceremony takes place there or in another municipal building the mayor designates. Because Paris mairies handle heavy volumes, lodge the file at least two to three months before the target date, keep every receipt, and identify early whether the prosecutor’s office of the Tribunal judiciaire de Paris will need to see anything unusual in your file (a recent divorce, a complex name history, documents from a third country). Elsewhere in the Île-de-France, the same applies at the commune’s mairie, with the local prosecutor (Nanterre, Bobigny, Créteil, Évry, Meaux, Melun, Pontoise, Versailles) competent for waivers and oppositions. A wedding in a château in the Yvelines or Seine-et-Marne is lawful only through the commune’s mairie for the civil act; the château hosts the party, the mairie makes the marriage.
II. What happens when the mairie or the prosecutor blocks the wedding, and how do you challenge it?
A. Audition, investigation and opposition: what if the procureur blocks your wedding?
Many British couples fear a refusal at the counter. The reassuring rule first: before or after the audition, the registrar cannot simply throw out your file. The service-public.fr guidance is explicit that the audition (the interview) is mandatory — The registrar hears you both together, adding individual interviews where needed and an interpreter at your expense where French is an issue — yet Before or after the hearing, the registrar cannot refuse a marriage file. Before or after the hearing, the registrar cannot refuse a marriage file. What the registrar can do, where serious indications of fraud appear (a fictitious or forced marriage, absence of consent, a wedding contracted for another purpose such as obtaining a residence permit), is alert the prosecutor. The prosecutor then has fifteen days to let the wedding proceed or oppose it, and may extend the inquiry by a reasoned decision of up to one renewable month: The prosecutor has fifteen days to let the wedding proceed or oppose it, The decision must be reasoned and communicated to you, and an opposition is challenged by a demande de mainlevée (an application to lift the opposition) before the tribunal judiciaire (the ordinary civil court), where representation by an avocat (a lawyer admitted to a French bar) is compulsory.
The statutory machinery behind that summary is article 175-2 of the Civil Code: “Lorsqu’il existe des indices sérieux laissant présumer, le cas échéant au vu de l’audition ou des entretiens individuels mentionnés à l’article 63 , que le mariage envisagé est susceptible d’être annulé au titre de l’article 146 ou de l’article 180 , l’officier de l’état civil saisit sans délai le procureur de la République.” (article 175-2, Civil Code, on Légifrance) Where serious indications suggest the planned wedding could be annulled for lack of consent or for coerced consent, the registrar refers the matter to the prosecutor without delay. The prosecutor’s own power to oppose mirrors the nullity cases: “Le ministère public peut former opposition pour les cas où il pourrait demander la nullité du mariage.” (article 175-1, Civil Code, on Légifrance) The public prosecution may oppose in any case where it could seek annulment. Opposition is not reserved to the prosecutor: the first right belongs to a current spouse — “Le droit de former opposition à la célébration du mariage appartient à la personne engagée par mariage avec l’une des deux parties contractantes.” (article 172, Civil Code, on Légifrance) — which is why a British divorce that is not yet final in England can paralyse a French wedding until the decree absolute (the final divorce order) is produced, translated and understood.
Courts regularly test this machinery, and three recent decisions show how. On 25 March 2026 the First Civil Chamber (no. 24-12.863, full judgment on courdecassation.fr) approved a prosecutor who, alerted by consular authorities to signs of a consent defect, gathered further information before deciding, quoting the governing text: “Lorsque des indices sérieux laissent présumer que le mariage envisagé encourt la nullité au titre des articles 144, 146, 146-1, 147, 161, 162, 163, 180 ou 191, l’autorité diplomatique ou consulaire saisit sans délai le procureur de la République compétent et en informe les intéressés. Le procureur de la République peut, dans le délai de deux mois à compter de la saisine, faire connaître par une décision motivée, à l’autorité diplomatique ou consulaire du lieu où la célébration du mariage est envisagée et aux intéressés, qu’il s’oppose à cette célébration. La mainlevée de l’opposition peut être demandée, à tout moment, devant le tribunal judiciaire conformément aux dispositions des articles 177 et 178 par les futurs époux, même mineurs.” The Court then validated the investigation itself: “la validité de l’audition de Mme [T], seule domiciliée en France, confiée à des enquêteurs relevant de l’autorité du procureur de la République, ne pouvait être remise en cause.” The validity of the hearing, entrusted to investigators acting under the prosecutor’s authority, could not be challenged. The lesson for British couples is direct: an audition by police or gendarmerie investigators at the prosecutor’s request is lawful, so attend it, answer consistently, and keep copies of everything you hand over.
The two other decisions concern timing and outcome. On 5 April 2023 (First Civil Chamber, no. 21-15.196, full judgment on courdecassation.fr), the Court recalled that where spouses seek mainlevée, “le tribunal judiciaire statue dans le mois. En cas d’appel, la cour statue dans le même délai”, the court decides within one month, and on appeal the appeal court decides within the same period, but “Le non-respect de ces délais n’est assorti d’aucune sanction et ne saurait entraîner de plein droit la mainlevée de l’opposition.” Missing those deadlines carries no sanction and cannot automatically lift the opposition. Do not read judicial delay as victory; only a judgment lifts the bar. And opposition is not destiny: on 8 October 2025 the Tribunal judiciaire de Béthune (judgment no. RG 25/01336) ordered the lifting of the marriage opposition entered on 16 December 2024 by the Béthune public prosecutor against the planned union of the two applicants. Couples facing an opposition should therefore file for mainlevée promptly — the statute gives the court ten days: “Le tribunal judiciaire prononcera dans les dix jours sur la demande en mainlevée formée par les futurs époux, même mineurs.” (article 177, Civil Code, on Légifrance) On appeal, “S’il y a appel, il y sera statué dans les dix jours et, si le jugement dont est appel a donné mainlevée de l’opposition, la cour devra statuer même d’office.” (article 178, Civil Code, on Légifrance) — and assemble the consent evidence described in the next section.
B. Sham-marriage suspicion, annulment after the wedding, and your remedies against a refusal to celebrate
Suspicion usually takes one of two shapes: the prosecutor believes one of you is marrying only for a residence permit or another advantage (a mariage blanc, a sham marriage with no matrimonial intent on either side, or a mariage gris, where one spouse is sincere and the other is not), or a spouse later claims the marriage was contracted under coercion. Article 180 of the Civil Code governs the second case: “Le mariage qui a été contracté sans le consentement libre des deux époux, ou de l’un d’eux, ne peut être attaqué que par les époux, ou par celui des deux dont le consentement n’a pas été libre, ou par le ministère public.” (article 180, Civil Code, on Légifrance) A wedding contracted without the free consent of both spouses, or of one of them, can be attacked only by the spouses, by the one whose consent was not free, or by the prosecution. For the first case, the Cour de cassation set the benchmark on 11 July 2019 (First Civil Chamber, no. 18-17.574, full judgment on courdecassation.fr): the appeal court had found it certain that the wife had wanted to meet a French man and live in France, yet still refused annulment because she projected a shared future. The Court quashed, holding: “alors qu’elle avait relevé qu’il était certain que Mme L… souhaitait rencontrer un homme français et vivre en France, ce dont il résultait qu’il n’existait pas d’intention matrimoniale spécifique à l’égard de M. Y…, la cour d’appel n’a pas tiré les conséquences légales de ses propres constatations et violé le texte susvisé”, deciding under visa of “Vu l’article 146 du code civil”, and it “CASSE ET ANNULE, en toutes ses dispositions, l’arrêt rendu le 26 septembre 2017, entre les parties, par la cour d’appel de Toulouse”. Wanting to live in France, without a specific matrimonial intent towards the actual spouse, is not consent within the meaning of article 146. British couples should read this as a warning in both directions: never marry to manufacture residence, and if your genuine relationship is questioned, evidence the specifically matrimonial bond — shared home, shared finances, shared plans, testimony from both families — not merely the wish to settle in France.
Courts do not annul lightly, and the counterweight matters as much as the warning. On 17 November 2020 the Cour d’appel de Versailles (RG no. 19/02014) refused to follow a husband who sought to have his own 2014 marriage annulled: it confirmed in full the 9 November 2018 judgment of the former Tribunal de grande instance de Pontoise, which had dismissed the annulment claim, and ordered the claimant to pay appeal costs. A spouse who celebrated the wedding and lived the marriage will struggle to have it erased afterwards. The same balance appears in the presence rule clarified on 18 March 2020 (First Civil Chamber, no. 19-11.573, full judgment on courdecassation.fr): “Aux termes de l’article 146-1 du même code, le mariage d’un Français, même contracté à l’étranger, requiert sa présence”, and that provision “requiert la présence des seuls français lors de leur mariage contracté à l’étranger”. Presence is a personal-law condition imposed on French nationals; each spouse’s national law governs the rest. For two Brits marrying in France, both must of course attend the ceremony in person, but the validity of each spouse’s consent and capacity is judged under English law for capacity and under French consent law for reality — the exact split of article 202-1 examined in Part I.
Where the blockage is not an opposition but the mairie itself refusing to celebrate or to publish the bans, the remedy changes court. The refusal is an administrative decision challengeable before the tribunal administratif (the administrative court) within two months, and urgency can be met through the emergency judge: article L. 521-1 of the Code de justice administrative allows the référé judge, hearing a suspension application alongside an annulment claim, to suspend execution of an administrative decision, even a rejection, where urgency justifies it and a serious ground exists (article L. 521-1, Code of administrative justice, on Légifrance). In practice, assemble a dated bundle — complete file receipts, the FCDO self-declaration, the sworn translations, the audition record, proof of the one-month residence link, the wedding-venue booking showing time pressure — then file the annulment claim with a référé-suspension (the emergency application asking the judge to suspend the refusal within days or weeks) and expressly request an injunction setting a celebration deadline. Never invent a document to force the file through: a forged certificat de célibat or a backdated lease converts a winnable delay dispute into a fraud case, and fraud findings poison residence applications long after the wedding. If the prosecutor opposed, use the mainlevée route of articles 177 and 178 before the tribunal judiciaire; if the mayor refuses, use the administrative route; if both pile up, run both in parallel with the same exhibits, because each judge decides only the decision before them.
Conclusion
Two British citizens can marry in France after Brexit through a marked path: prove eighteen years and freedom to marry with recent birth certificates, apostilles and sworn translations; replace the unobtainable British certificates of custom and single status with the FCDO self-declaration of May 2024 plus the explanatory note, backed by the service-public.fr fallback attestations; sign any marriage contract before a notaire before the day; publish the bans for ten days in the commune of domicile or one month’s residence; and celebrate publicly at the mairie with two to four witnesses, the religious ceremony always second. Where suspicion arises, the registrar must hear you but cannot bin your file; only the prosecutor can oppose, by a reasoned decision, after an audition you must attend; and only a court can keep the bar in place, with mainlevée available at any time before the tribunal judiciaire deciding within ten days. Behind every stage stands the same sentence of article 146 — no consent, no marriage — applied by courts that annul weddings contracted to obtain residence and protect weddings lived as marriages. Build the file early, evidence the specifically matrimonial bond from the first appointment, challenge oppositions and refusals within their short time limits with an express request for a deadline, and treat the bans, the audition and the witnesses as seriously as the wedding itself. Do that, and the French system, which is demanding but bound by its own rules, will give you the wedding it owes you.
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Statutory references: article 63 Civil Code, article 74 Civil Code, article 75 Civil Code, article 144 Civil Code, article 146 Civil Code, article 146-1 Civil Code, article 165 Civil Code, article 169 Civil Code, article 172 Civil Code, article 175-2 Civil Code, article 175-1 Civil Code, article 177 Civil Code, article 178 Civil Code, article 180 Civil Code, article 1394 Civil Code, article 1395 Civil Code, article 202-1 Civil Code, article 47 Civil Code, article L. 2122-32 CGCT, article L. 521-1 CJA, Cass. 1st civ., 18 May 2022, no. 21-11.106, Cass. 1st civ., 25 Mar. 2026, no. 24-12.863, Cass. 1st civ., 5 Apr. 2023, no. 21-15.196, Cass. 1st civ., 18 Mar. 2020, no. 19-11.573, Cass. 1st civ., 11 July 2019, no. 18-17.574, TJ Béthune, 8 Oct. 2025, RG 25/01336, CA Versailles, 17 Nov. 2020, RG 19/02014.