# Can Apostille documents in Gibraltar ?



## angkag (Oct 29, 2013)

I've searched the forums and stickies, but can't find any reference to this - apologies if I missed it.

I've been told by a local lawyer that I need to get my kids' UK birth certificates apostilled to get them registered as residents.

He said I could get them apostilled in Gibraltar, can anyone confirm this ? (I live close to Gib so that would be easier for me than going the mail route).

He hasn't always been correct in what can be done where.....

I asked the UK fco.gov.uk website; they addressed some questions, but for some reason they skipped over this one without giving a yay or nay.


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## cermignano (Feb 9, 2017)

Ask at the consulate


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## angkag (Oct 29, 2013)

cermignano said:


> Ask at the consulate


No British Embassy or Consulate-General in Gibraltar.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

angkag said:


> I've searched the forums and stickies, but can't find any reference to this - apologies if I missed it.
> 
> I've been told by a local lawyer that I need to get my kids' UK birth certificates apostilled to get them registered as residents.
> 
> ...


If you do need to get them apostilled (not sure if this is correct or not) all you need to do is Google "Notary Gibraltar" and phone to check that they offer this service


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

angkag said:


> I've searched the forums and stickies, but can't find any reference to this - apologies if I missed it.
> 
> I've been told by a local lawyer that I need to get my kids' UK birth certificates apostilled to get them registered as residents.
> 
> ...


There is only one place that can apostille UK birth certs https://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised. And they do need to be apostilled, as does your marriage cert if you need that for a spouse to be registered as a dependent.

British consulates can't do it, nor can notaries.

There are private companies which will charge you a lot more, but they still have to send them to the same place, so you might as well deal with it yourself.

I thought this was in the FAQ stickies - I'll check


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## angkag (Oct 29, 2013)

The gov.uk site finally responded on this with the response 'ask Gibraltar, please email the office of the governor'.

The office of the governor of Gibraltar then responded that his office did not deal with this, and should contact the Gibraltar Civil Status and Registration Office at [email protected]

I guess surprised the gov.uk site didn't just respond 'no, you need to get the apostille here with us'. They had previously asked for scans of the documents under discussion, so they were able to see the documents in question prior to responding (so could not be a question of misunderstanding).

I think I'm ok just sending to them to the UK to get the apostille anyway (and xabiachica quite correct that best to do this directly with the gov.uk site which costs 30 pounds per doc - all the private companies charge more to do the same thing), just seems odd not to get a simple 'no' from the gov.uk site (and no response from the Gibraltar csro site - so still an unknown).


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## angkag (Oct 29, 2013)

xabiachica said:


> There is only one place that can apostille UK birth certs https://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised. And they do need to be apostilled, as does your marriage cert if you need that for a spouse to be registered as a dependent.
> 
> British consulates can't do it, nor can notaries.
> 
> ...


Just to confirm the outcome, I did not get a response from Gibraltar on whether I could get an apostille from there or not, so gave up and did it through the gov.uk site. The gov.uk site really is very easy to work with, so makes no sense to go through private companies as xabiachica states (unless you want to pay more).

The documents in question were birth certificates issued by the embassies or consulate-generals of Tokyo, Indonesia and Hong Kong, which DID qualify as 'UK Documents' (not foreign ones) for the purposes of getting an apostille, so could us the gov.uk site to get the apostilles. Total cost 30 per document + 14.50 courier fee paid to gov.uk + cost to courier the docs from wherever you are.


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## angkag (Oct 29, 2013)

Interestingly, just been informed by gov.uk 'sorry, we don't have a copy of one of the signatures on record, give us a couple of weeks to sort it out - hopefully'.

The certification has to verify the signature on the original document, and it seems mighty odd that the process of an individual getting authorisation to sign documents in embassies doesn't always involve the rather obvious step of 'deposit example of your signature at head office'.

(luckily the original document is relatively recent and signed in 2008, I wonder if the original was from something like 1978 how it would pan out...... )


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