How same-sex couples legally marry in Greece
Since February 2024 this is ordinary civil marriage, with ordinary civil paperwork. Here is exactly what that involves, and the parts that catch couples out.
The short version
Law 5089/2024 opened civil marriage to same-sex couples in February 2024, making Greece the first Orthodox-majority country to do it. There is no separate track. The government's own listing for a marriage licence names that law next to the 1982 civil marriage act, which tells you everything about how routine this now is.
You do not need to live in Greece. You do need a file of foreign documents, apostilled and translated, submitted to a Greek municipality. The licence is issued seven days after your papers are submitted and verified, and stays valid for six months. The state fee is €18.
Nothing about that is difficult. It is simply unfamiliar, in a language you do not read, on a counter that keeps Greek hours. That is the whole reason couples hire someone here.
What you need
- Passports: for both of you, plus a copy for the file.
- Full birth certificates: the long form, not a short extract, officially translated into Greek.
- A certificate of no impediment: from your own country's authority or its consular service in Greece, confirming you are free to marry.
- An apostille on each foreign document: if your country is party to the Hague Convention. If it is not, the papers are certified by the Greek consulate in that country instead.
- Proof that a previous marriage ended: a divorce decree or a death certificate, translated, if either of you has been married before.
- A marriage announcement in a local newspaper: still a formal requirement in Greece, and a genuine surprise to most couples.
Every document has to be recent, meaning issued within the last six months, and every foreign one has to be translated into Greek by a translator Greece accepts. A birth certificate you already own is usually too old to use.
The part that actually goes wrong
It is almost never the Greek end. It is the certificate of no impediment. Some countries will not issue one to a couple of the same sex, some do not issue certificates of that kind at all and offer a differently named document instead, and some waive the requirement precisely because the couple could not marry at home. Which of those you are dealing with depends on your nationality, and if there are two nationalities in the couple you may be dealing with two answers.
This is the single most common reason a Greek wedding date slips, and it is the one part of the process that a company in another country cannot solve for you at the counter. Tell us both nationalities early and we will tell you what you are facing before you book anything.
Questions couples actually ask
Yes. Since Law 5089/2024, passed in February 2024, marriage in Greece is open to same-sex couples on the same terms as anyone else. Greece was the first Orthodox-majority country to get there.
There is no separate same-sex procedure, no different paperwork and no lesser status. It is the ordinary civil marriage route, which is why the government's own service listing for a marriage licence cites that law alongside the older ones.
No. Greece has no residency requirement for a foreign couple marrying here, which is a large part of why it hosts so many destination weddings.
The paperwork still has to be filed with a Greek municipality, and the practical details of doing that as a non-resident are what we handle.
The marriage licence is issued seven days after your documents are submitted and verified, and it is then valid for six months.
The seven days is the easy part. Assembling apostilled, translated, in-date documents from another country is what actually sets your timeline, and it is why we tell couples to start three to four months out.
No. Same-sex marriage in Greece is civil marriage only. The Greek Orthodox Church does not perform same-sex weddings and the 2024 law did not change that.
What couples do instead is a civil ceremony for the law and a celebrant-led ceremony wherever they actually want to stand, which in practice is a terrace, a headland or a beach.
A legal ceremony creates a marriage recognised by Greece and, through it, by other countries. A symbolic ceremony has no legal effect and needs no paperwork at all.
Plenty of couples still marry legally at home and hold the real celebration in Greece, and that is a perfectly good plan. It is now a choice rather than the only option, which is the thing that changed in 2024.
That depends on your own country, not on Greece. A Greek civil marriage is a full marriage under Greek and EU law.
If you are from a country that does not recognise same-sex marriage, this is the question to put to a lawyer at home before you book anything. We will tell you plainly when that is the situation you are in.
Ask us before you book anything
We are Theo and Thanasis, a gay couple running a licensed travel agency in Athens. We are not a website in another country that will pass your paperwork to someone here. We are the someone here.
Or message us on WhatsApp and ask the awkward question first.
Legal position and procedure checked against the Municipality of Athens civil marriage service and the Greek government's national registry of administrative services on 21 August 2026. This is general information about a public procedure, not legal advice, and whether your marriage is recognised outside Greece is a question for your own country.