# Getting our Marriage certificate Apostille stamped



## loulou-81 (Dec 3, 2013)

Hi,

We need our marriage certificate stamped with an Apostille stamp. I've never heard of this but have been told, that to have it seen as being legal in Spain it has to be Apostille stamped? I've searched high and low on the internet and have found 3rd party companies who do it but charge around £60 and upwards. 

I did find this website that is the official government website but that internet page says nothing about being stamped with an Apostille stamp, it just says about getting documents legalised. Is that the same thing? I've tried to call but can't get through and I don't want to pay my £30 online to find it arrives without the Apostille stamp?

Confused . com 

Thanks all!
Lou


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

loulou-81 said:


> Hi,
> 
> We need our marriage certificate stamped with an Apostille stamp. I've never heard of this but have been told, that to have it seen as being legal in Spain it has to be Apostille stamped? I've searched high and low on the internet and have found 3rd party companies who do it but charge around £60 and upwards.
> 
> ...



In all the time we've been here we've never needed to have this done. Who told you that it was required?

When we bought our property it was to be a holiday home. As we could not leave our business in UK, we gave power of attorney to our Spanish lawyer. To do this, certain documents had to be notarised and apostilled - we found a Notary who gave us the address of where to get the documents apostilled - somewhere in London. From memory, though, it was not cheap.


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

It will, along with birth certificate, probably only need to be done, legalised, at the office in Milton Keynes, should you want to become a Spanish national.

Our birth and marriage certificates have been accepted for obtaining residents status, without being legalised, however that was over 10 years ago.

The cost is 30 GBP per document. The website is below should you need it.

http://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised


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## Lolito (Aug 25, 2012)

We did it a few months ago, sent it to Milton Keynes, paid online (not sure of the link but probably the same one posted by Hepa). It was £30k. 

There is no such thing as a stamp, all we had was a white post-it-like glued to the back of the document.


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## Lolito (Aug 25, 2012)

oops! £30 !! ignore the 'k' at the end!


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## goingtobcn (Sep 9, 2012)

:lol: Lolito! 

We needed to have ours done to set me up as hubby's dependent for Seguridad Social before I registered as self employed. Sent to MK as others have said, we paid to include it being returned by courier and also paid to send it there by courier.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

snikpoh said:


> In all the time we've been here we've never needed to have this done. Who told you that it was required?
> 
> When we bought our property it was to be a holiday home. As we could not leave our business in UK, we gave power of attorney to our Spanish lawyer. To do this, certain documents had to be notarised and apostilled - we found a Notary who gave us the address of where to get the documents apostilled - somewhere in London. From memory, though, it was not cheap.


for anything official, as of early last year, you've needed to get things like birth & marriage certs either 'legally translated' or apostilled - I even had to get my kids' birth certs apostilled for something after my husband died - the same ones we'd been using here for everything 'official' for the previous 8 years!

thisis where you send them https://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised


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## Lolito (Aug 25, 2012)

We have had to use apostillas for my marriage certificate, my divorce sentence, and other papers...


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## loulou-81 (Dec 3, 2013)

Thank you all for replying, much appreciated 

I'm British and my husband is Australian so we have to have our marriage certificate Apostilled in order for him to apply for his spouse visa. A lawyer in Spain told us we need our marriage certificate apostilled in order for them to recognise the certificate in Spain. I did see the government website that's been pasted above but it didn't say anything about apostilles so I just wanted to make sure it was the same thing...  

Thanks ya'all


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## jacklondon (Mar 9, 2015)

*China legalisation*

Never heard of that name, but as willing to work in China as a teacher (UK based, with Polish passport) I was asked by the Chinese embassy to get my marriage cert. legalised. I also found out that they need it legalised by British Foreign Comm. Office! Crazy. Did anybody do that in the UK? How long did it take? Once I get my cert., will I have to post it or they provide a certified copy of the original certificate?


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

jacklondon said:


> Never heard of that name, but as willing to work in China as a teacher (UK based, with Polish passport) I was asked by the Chinese embassy to get my marriage cert. legalised. I also found out that they need it legalised by British Foreign Comm. Office! Crazy. Did anybody do that in the UK? How long did it take? Once I get my cert., will I have to post it or they provide a certified copy of the original certificate?


click the link a few posts back & follow the instructions

I did it with my daughters' birth certs - I seem to remember that I had to send the originals from here & they were returned to me 'apostilled' 

it was fairly quick - less than a couple of weeks


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## Justina (Jan 25, 2013)

*Documents*



xabiachica said:


> click the link a few posts back & follow the instructions
> 
> I did it with my daughters' birth certs - I seem to remember that I had to send the originals from here & they were returned to me 'apostilled'
> 
> it was fairly quick - less than a couple of weeks


I had to get my marriage certificate renewed, legalised or whatever is the word cos my husband is Mexican although we were married in Glasgow. I simply checked out the address for certificates, phoned, gave the details and my debit card no, got charged 15pounds and the new certificate with its stamp on it arrived to Spain a couple of weeks later. Mind you, it is only valid for three months. Fortunately, in Cadiz city, I didn't have to waste money on a translator.


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