Legalisation: How to Get it Right - British Educational Certificates

In order to have British educational documents legalised at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, they first need to be signed by a practising UK solicitor or Notary Public.

This is because the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) does not hold a database of signatures of staff working in universities, and are therefore unable to confirm their signatures.

The information below has been extracted from the FCO information leaflet, so that you may know if your document can be legalised or not:

Educational documents which are not degrees, diplomas, certificates, qualifications or other awards may be legalised if they have been issued by an educational establishment in the UK. This includes school reports and letters concerning enrolling, attendance, fees and grades.

Documents which are degrees, diplomas, certificates, qualifications or other awards can be legalised if they were issued by an educational establishment if it is registered at one of the following websites:

• 'Register of Providers' or the 'Recognised Degrees' sections of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) website
• the Scottish Qualifications Authority website
• the National Database of Accredited Qualifications website
• the British Accreditation Council Website
• the Open and Distance Learning Quality Council
• the Association of British Language Schools

Additionally, qualifications which are or were issued by OCR, Edexcel, Higher National Diploma, City and Guilds, National Open College Network, GNVQ or the American Study Abroad Programme in the UK can also be legalised.

Once you have established that your document can be legalised there are three main ways to have it done.

1. The original certificate itself is signed and legalised.
2. A certified copy is made and the copy is legalised.
3. A cover sheet is attached to either the original or a copy and the cover sheet is legalised.

The choice will depend on what is accepted by the authority to whom the document is to be submitted.

In the first method the solicitor or notary public must sign the document and state “I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of this document”, or something along these lines. Some solicitors will be happy to do this, some won’t. So if you find a solicitor that is not happy to do it, just try another one.

Note that the solicitor must sign their own name, and not their company name. Also they must clearly state their name and add their company stamp.

In the second method a photocopy of the original is made and the Notary or solicitor will compare the original to the copy and write ‘I hereby certify this to be a true copy of the original document presented to me’ or something similar.

In the third method, which it is most common for Notaries to use, either of the above statements or something similar will be written on a sheet of paper attached to the front of the document. Each notary will have their own wording for this.

If you don’t know if you need a Notary Public or solicitor, you will need to contact the authority abroad who are requesting the certificate, and find out what their requirements are. Sometimes all they want is the Apostille (legalisation) attached to it, so it doesn’t matter which one you choose, but sometimes they may demand that a Notary Public signs it instead of a solicitor. The requesting authority is the only place you can go to make sure you comply with their requirements.

Certified Translation: Foreign Marriage Certificates for the Purpose of Divorce in the UK

Translation of foreign marriage certificates for general use in the UK, such as the Passport Agency, the Home Office etc, require our basic certification only. This means we attach a declaration to the translated document stating that it is an accurate translation of the document presented to us.

However, when we translate a foreign marriage certificate for use in a UK court for the purpose of divorce, the certification must be made with an affidavit, signed before a Notary Public.

This is stated within The Family Proceedings Rules 1991, from which I have extracted the relevant paragraph:

Evidence of marriage outside England and Wales

10.14—(1) The celebration of a marriage outside England and Wales and its validity under the law of the country where it was celebrated may, in any family proceedings in which the existence and validity of the marriage is not disputed, be proved by the evidence of one of the parties to the marriage and the production of a document purporting to be—

(a) a marriage certificate or similar document issued under the law in force in that country; or

(b) a certified copy of an entry in a register of marriages kept under the law in force in that country.

(2) Where a document produced by virtue of paragraph (1) is not in English it shall, unless otherwise directed, be accompanied by a translation certified by a notary public or authenticated by affidavit.

(3) This rule shall not be construed as precluding the proof of marriage in accordance with the Evidence (Foreign, Dominion and Colonial Documents) Act 1933[82] or in any other manner authorised apart from this rule.

It is worth mentioning that many judges around the country have accepted translations with only our basic certification, so it is always worth contacting the court to find out what type of certification they would accept.

Please, feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly with any queries!

Legalisation: How to get it right - Foreign Documents

Documents issued outside the United Kingdom cannot usually be leagalised in the UK. They may need to be legalised in the country of origin.

However, the Legalisation Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the UK will legalise certified copies of foreign documents as long as the copy is certified with a separate sheet of paper, i.e. if the solicitor or Notary Public takes a copy of the original document, then stamps the same sheet of paper, the FCO will not legalise it. Just to complicate matters, this does not apply to certified copies of Academic certificates - they can be legalised without a separate sheet.

The solicitor or Notary Public must issue a separate sheet, stating "this is a true copy of the original document" or something similar; they would then need to stamp and sign this sheet and attach it to the copy of the document. The FCO will then attach the apostille on this certification.

Remember also that the solicitor must sign their own name, not the company name, as this cannot be legalised.

Points to remember:
1. Foreign documents should be certified with a separate sheet (except Academic Certificates)
2. Original foreign documents should not be attached - only copies.

Legalisation: How to get it right - GRO Documents

By the end of this post you should know exactly what to do in order to have GRO (General Register Office) documents legalised and how to avoid delays caused by documents prepared incorrectly.

In our office, we receive hundreds of documents every week for legalisation at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), and we have noticed some common mistakes.

Some of the most common problems are related to General Register Office (GRO) documents, such as birth, death and marriage certificates.

The FCO will only legalise copies issued by the GRO themselves. Even if the copy has been authenticated by a solicitor or Notary Public, the FCO will still not legalise it. The reason for this is that they have been advised that the General Register Office (GRO) or local Registry Offices are the only designated authorities in the UK who may issue certified copies of these documents.

The same applies to Certificates of No Impediment (CNI) and “No Trace” letters issued by the GRO.

So basically, nothing needs to be done to this kind of document before they are legalised. There is no need for any certification to be added to them. Just send them for legalisation as they are.

.