Marriage Certificate Document Legalisation in London UK

A marriage certificate is issued by an official government office to state that two people are legally married. It can be required for many purposes, such as for spouses opening joint bank accounts, registering a home together, to serve in issues of legitimacy of a child, evidence of any change of the name of a party (if one spouse wishes to take on the other’s surname for example), to serve in divorce proceedings, to track the genealogical history of a person or to serve as a proof of marriage when applying for a spousal visa.

In the UK, copies of marriage certificates are recorded in two registers, one that is retained by the Church office or register office and other by the superintendent registrar of the district where the marriage ceremony takes place. These records are further transferred to the General Register Office (GRO) every quarter, to the Registrar General. Thus, to obtain a copy of your marriage certificate in the UK, you have to register on the GRO website and fill out the online application form. Please note that the GRO is the sole authority to issue this certificate, as well as a civil partnership certificate in certain cases.

Marriage certificate documents need legalisation when they have to be used abroad. For instance, if you wish to sponsor your husband/wife for a spouse visa or family visit visa while you are employed abroad, you will need to legalize your marriage certificate documents. This is mandatory in any situation where you need to prove your marital status to the authorities abroad, such as opening joint bank accounts overseas or purchasing or renting a property outside the UK. Overseas authorities sometimes need legalised marriage certificates to deal with property and assets of a deceased person, for the purposes of transferring them legally to the surviving spouse. Even if you are divorced, you will need to have a marriage certificate apostille, to serve as proof of the dissolved marriage.

Legalisation is completed by the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London. The FCO attaches an apostille certificate to the original marriage certificate document, after complete verification. As the UK is a member of the 1961 Hague Convention, public documents, such as marriage certificates, are acceptable in signatory member nations with only the apostille stamp. However, if the destination country is not a member of the convention, the documents will further need attestation through the respective Embassy, located in London.

Some documents need to be attested by a notary public or solicitor in the UK, before they can be apostilled by the FCO.

You need to submit your original marriage certificate for the apostille certification by the FCO. Alternatively, you can also choose to apply for a replacement certificate with the GRO office and get the new copy legalised. The document will be attested by our in-house solicitor, after which it will be submitted to the FCO for the apostille.