Marriage Certificate (UK)

Marriage certificates are government-issued documents which declare two people are married.

These documents are legal proof that the marriage officially took place. It is important to keep them safe for future reference.

In the eighteenth century, marriage certificates were first introduced in England and Wales. This is when the country was separated into registration districts, which are still to this day controlled by a superintendent registrar in local districts.

A marriage certificate records and confirms the marriage in a central database.

In the UK, officially issued marriage certificates are protected by Crown copyright. This means that they cannot be photocopied. If you require a copy, you must request a certified copy from the General Register Office.

Before getting legally married or entering a civil partnership, you will need to follow a process to apply for your marriage certificate.

You will be required to submit a notice at your local register office which will take 28 days to be displayed at the office.

You will need to meet with the superintendent registrar and present them with all the necessary documents. They will ensure that you are legally able to marry and inform you what you’re both agreeing to.

After this period is over, the registrar can confirm that you are legally allowed to marry and a civil or religious ceremony can take place.

You may be asked to apply for an apostille certificate for one of the following reasons:

• Emigrating to another country
• Divorce proceedings
• Starting new employment abroad
• Execution of a will
• Purchasing or selling property overseas
• Obtaining overseas citizenship
• Applying for a visa
• Proving the legitimacy of a child
• Visiting a spouse, who lives in another country
• Registering your marriage overseas
• Dealing with the death of a spouse whilst living overseas

An apostille certificate is used to authenticate an original marriage certificate issued by the General Register Office (GRO) or local registrar. The apostille provides official government recognition that the marriage certificate is valid which in turn offers reassurance for the recipient of the certificate in a foreign country.

The Hague Convention in 1961 introduced apostille stamps as a form of legalisation for different types of documents such as a marriage certificate. Apostille certificates are accepted by over 120 member countries of the Hague Convention.

If a country has not signed up to the Hague Convention the marriage certificate will need to be further legalised by the Embassy of the country in which it is going to be used.

To apostille a marriage certificate, you will need to provide an original marriage certificate.

To obtain an apostille, you will need to submit your marriage certificate to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Legalisation Office (FCDO).

There are two Legalisation Office counters – one in London (Premium Service) and one in Milton Keynes (Standard Service). We offer a premium same-day apostille service for urgent matters and standard 3-5 working day apostille service if you are not in a rush.

Notary.co.uk can assist you with our fast and cost-effective services and walk you through every step of the process:

1. Contact us and tell us what you need. We will ask you to complete our online Client Registration Form and explain how we will complete the identification and verification process.
2. You can book an appointment to deliver the original marriage certificate to us, or post the original document to our London Victoria office.
3. We will then have the document apostilled on either our Premium or Standard service. If you need consular legalisation, we will also complete that process for you.
4. Once this has been completed, we will scan the document with the apostille certificate and return the document to you. We can also arrange to send the document to a third party if needed.

If you need your marriage certificate document notarised or issued with an apostille or consular legalisation, we’ll be able to support you with our exceptional services.

If you have a non-UK marriage certificate, it will need to be notarised first before it can be apostilled.

You will need to provide the original marriage certificate to us, and we will carry out checks to confirm that it is authentic. We will then make a photocopy and notarise that photocopy.

Finally, we will submit the notarised copy to the FCDO on either our Premium or Standard Service to be apostilled.

If you will be using it in a country which has not signed up to the Hague Apostille Convention, it will need to be further legalised by the Embassy of the country it is going to. Please note that some Embassies will not legalise non-UK marriage certificates, such as the Chinese Embassy.

If you have had a nikkah or Islamic marriage ceremony, you will be issued a marriage certificate by the religious official who carried out the ceremony. This certificate confirms that the marriage has taken place.

Nikkah marriage certificates are issued by the UK government. They will need to be notarised before they can be apostilled.

You will need to provide us with the original Nikkah certificate, and our team will carry out checks to make sure it is authentic. We will then make a photocopy and one of our notaries will notarise the copy. Finally, we will submit it to the FCDO to be apostilled.

If you will be using it in a country which has not signed up to the Hague Apostille Convention, it will need to be further legalised by the Embassy of the country it is going to. Please note that some Embassies will not legalise nikkah certificates, such as the UAE Embassy.