Apostille Stamp

SecretBride · 29-10-2015 2:48pm #1

Can I just pre-warn anybody needing one of these to get onto it straight away! Sweet Lord, this has been the bane of our wedding arrangements!

Basically, anybody born anywhere outside of the Republic of Ireland (inc NI & the UK) needs their birth cert stamped with one if these. I have lived here for 35 years, been married here before, been divorced here, got passports, drivers licences etc before, all whilst using the original (not a copy!) of my birth cert and for 49 years it's been accepted without question!

Now though, apparently it can't be trusted!!!

I need to send it back to the UK (can't be done through the Embassy!) to get them to stamp and sign it and prove its original! Oh, and a little personal rant....it's costing me £59 sterling fir the pleasure!! The process started 4 weeks ago and I still don't have it and apparently the UK one is one of the easier ones to get......so thought I'd prepare you for what may turn into a nightmare if either of you have been born elsewhere!!!

Rant over 😁

honerbright · 29-10-2015 5:38pm

I've had to send my Birth Cert off to New Zealand earlier this month for the same reason. I'm super stressed there's going to be issues with it because the birth cert is old and worn and stuff, and I don't want to book a registrar or anything until I have the apostille stamp done and birth cert back.

anothernight · 29-10-2015 7:36pm

I didn't think all countries did apostille stamps.

EDIT: So I just found out that the country that issued my birth certificate doesn't do them. Thank you for making me look it up, OP.

CelticRambler · 29-10-2015 7:57pm

Be glad you don't live in France - you'd need an "original" birth cert, dated less than three months ago

and a certified translation, not to mention the certificate of celibacy from your Embassy and a pre-nup blood test ...

CBFi · 29-10-2015 9:22pm

Yeah it's worth being organised. Only took my OH a week or so to get his back from UK but I wouldn't leave it to chance!

SecretBride · 29-10-2015 10:52pm

I'll be honest, I read it on the website and thought, ah sure I'll be grand that won't apply to me!! Not because I'm special but because I've been using the original quite happily for 49 years for proper legal stuff! The moral of the story is, never think you're special 😂😂😂😂

uck51js9zml2yt · 29-10-2015 11:11pm

My wife is eastern European and we married here. We needed to get our marriage registered over there and needed our cert stamped.
Cost us a fortune to get it stamped.

SecretBride · 29-10-2015 11:14pm

Morgan Howling Rash wrote: »

My wife is eastern European and we married here. We needed to get our marriage registered over there and needed our cert stamped.
Cost us a fortune to get it stamped.

I did kind of look at the lady in the registry office and wanted to say, do I look like an illegal bride?!?!? I know I was just being grumpy though 😂😂

uck51js9zml2yt · 29-10-2015 11:24pm

SecretBride wrote: »

I did kind of look at the lady in the registry office and wanted to say, do I look like an illegal bride?!?!? I know I was just being grumpy though ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚

We had no issue with the wedding Ireland, EU etc but needed the wedding registered in Slovakia so my wife could get documents changed and eventually kids registered over there to have dual citizenship.
Irish apostilles are expensive and Slovakia bureaucratic.
Thankfully her dad has some pull and got an 8 week process for new passport and id done in less than a week.

SecretBride · 29-10-2015 11:35pm

Morgan Howling Rash wrote: »

We had no issue with the wedding Ireland, EU etc but needed the wedding registered in Slovakia so my wife could get documents changed and eventually kids registered over there to have dual citizenship.
Irish apostilles are expensive and Slovakia bureaucratic.
Thankfully her dad has some pull and got an 8 week process for new passport and id done in less than a week.

I was told that the stamps are needed now to stop illegal alien weddings pmsl!! Can't even imagine what an 'illegal alien' wedding might be :-) :-)

anothernight · 30-10-2015 12:06am

SecretBride wrote: »

I was told that the stamps are needed now to stop illegal alien weddings pmsl!! Can't even imagine what an 'illegal alien' wedding might be :-) :-)

It's worse if you're going to marry a non-EU person. There's usually an interview process involved, and sometimes extra proof of the relationship. As far as I know, some countries do that even when the marriage is of a national with an EU citizen.

SecretBride · 30-10-2015 7:16am

anothernight wrote: »

It's worse if you're going to marry a non-EU person. There's usually an interview process involved, and sometimes extra proof of the relationship. As far as I know, some countries do that even when the marriage is of a national with an EU citizen.

I can only imagine! I suppose if I were that I would at least expect it if I were though, I honestly didn't expect it coming from the uk and having been married here before without needing any of this....we are on a 3 month notice period for our wedding so I wanted to warn people who wouldn't have been expecting it ðŸ˜³

Gatica · 30-10-2015 8:08am

I've lived here since I was young and I got Irish citizenship using that birth cert and was also shocked that for marriage purposes somehow it wasn't good enough. Thankfully I already had certified translations of it.

OP just be glad that's all it cost you and that you could do it by post. I'd to get one done as well in my country of origin. I need a visa to go there, as you said it cannot be done by the embassy, the offices in the country wouldn't do it by post, so we were worried we'd never have the budget or time to get it done. Luckily I'd recently made contact with my uncle who still lives there and they were kind enough to do the running around on my behalf. Turned out you cannot post-out official documents from the country, so they had to ask someone travelling out to another country to post it to me from there. It was a logistical nightmare but we got it done. I'm sure I'm not the only one who had all this hassle, but at least if you're in the EU, you're hopefully a Ryanair flight away.

honerbright wrote: »

I've had to send my Birth Cert off to New Zealand earlier this month for the same reason. I'm super stressed there's going to be issues with it because the birth cert is old and worn and stuff, and I don't want to book a registrar or anything until I have the apostille stamp done and birth cert back.

You can book your registrar without having all the documents. They can use that as the date you registered your intent to marry, especially if you're worried about timing. They'll just put a note that there are X documents outstanding.

SecretBride · 30-10-2015 12:01pm

That's what we ended up doing Gatica....we are booked and all and I asked yesterday and was told that we had up to 3 days before the date to submit the full paperwork. Those 12 weeks whizz past though ðŸ˜³ Like yourself, it's nice to get a heads up about something like that though.....and yes, I'm flipping delighted I didn't have to go through all you did lol!!!

Gatica · 30-10-2015 12:27pm

It's good for people to come across it at forums like this though, maybe something others might find handy if they're in same situation and it didn't even cross their minds...

ShaShaBear · 31-10-2015 6:47pm

Was shocked myself at having to get something like that. Been living in Ireland to two Irish parents for the past 24 years (since I was 3). I have one child to my partner registered here and another on the way!

Sent mine off to the UK and got it back in the same week though, so the only bit that miffed me was the nearly €80 fee I had to pay!

Mrs OBumble · 02-11-2015 3:54pm

SecretBride wrote: »

Can't even imagine what an 'illegal alien' wedding might be :-) :-)

Another word for them is "overstayers". Lots of Irish doing it in the US use the word "undocumented", but really it's the same thing.

Tedious to have to get stamps etc, but personally I'm delighted that Ireland has finally copped on to fake marriages and is acting to stop them.

Gatica · 02-11-2015 4:11pm

so they're stopping "fake" marriages but not really stopping illegal naturalisations?? cos they're certainly not demanding the same type of scrutiny from the documents required for that.

03-11-2015 10:23am

Where do you have to send the birth cert to, Gatica and is there a time period you have to have it stamped within?

I've booked HSE for end of Feb, getting married 1st July.

Gatica · 03-11-2015 10:49am

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

Where do you have to send the birth cert to, Gatica and is there a time period you have to have it stamped within?

I've booked HSE for end of Feb, getting married 1st July.

No, as far as I know, it's valid for the life-time of the document. Where you send it to will depend on the country of origin. That you'll need to find out from them, I imagine it's not the same in every country, but more than likely you should be able to find that out from the office that issues birth certs there.

03-11-2015 10:58am

Thanks. My sister is over next month so I think I'll give her my birth cert and she can bring it to the registry office for stamping.

ShaShaBear · 03-11-2015 3:25pm

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

Thanks. My sister is over next month so I think I'll give her my birth cert and she can bring it to the registry office for stamping.

Check that out first, I wasn't allowed to take mine into the office to be stamped - it had to be done by post even if I was a UK resident.

03-11-2015 5:57pm

Thanks ShaSha, found link for UK birth certs and you have to pay online then post documents. Link below for anyone else that may need it.

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

ShaShaBear · 03-11-2015 6:05pm

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

Thanks ShaSha, found link for UK birth certs and you have to pay online then post documents. Link below for anyone else that may need it.

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

It's a bit of an overwhelming process at first, but they get it sorted pronto!

Apostille Stamp

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