# Marriage Certificate Legalization



## dowain (Jul 13, 2018)

Hello,

I am wondering if there are any document legalization experts here..

I am a UK-Finnish dual citizen. I was married some years ago in Cuba and at the time had the certificate legalized between Cuba and the UK. Because Cuba is not a signatory to the Hague convention, this was done in the old way of: first it is signed & stamped by the Cuban Foreign Ministry, then it is signed & stamped by the British Consulate in Havana.

Now I need to register the marriage with the Finnish authorities. I am told that to do this, I must take the certificate to the Finnish Consulate in Havana (incidentally located inside the Swedish Embassy) and have them sign & stamp it (legalize it) from the Finnish side. While I would love to go back to Cuba, it's not really an affordable option for me at the moment.

What I am looking for are any options to produce something that will be acceptable for the Finnish authorities, my ideas are:

- As the UK has legalized the certificate, can't the Finnish embassy take that on and Legalize it, like an A->B->C arrangement?
- Can the UK Foreign Office produce an apostille certificate, from the Consulate stamp? This might be accepted.
- If I went to Helsinki, would it be possible to have it legalized there between the Cuban Consulate and the Finnish Foreign Ministry

If anyone has any ideas, or tips, or anything, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Dan


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

You should probably contact the Finnish consulate in the UK and explain that you are not able to travel to Cuba for the document and legalization. They may suggest that you try to do it by mail (though I can imagine that that could be rather difficult). 

If they aren't requiring you to obtain a new marriage certificate, and you still have the original one that was legalized by the UK, perhaps they would accept to transmit it to their consulate in Havana via their courier pouch system.

Ultimately, I think you probably have to deal with the Finnish consulate and ask their advice on the matter, given that you're not able to book a trip back to Havana solely for this document at this time.
Cheers,
Bev


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