sakany123

Has anybody gone through the process of getting British documents (eg birth certificate) apostiled for the application for Spanish nationality? It was suggested to me that I employ a UK based solicitor/notary to firstly receive the documents (birth cert, criminal check, change of name deed) from other places where I've ordered the paperwork online and then he (the solicitor/notary) should apostile them and courier them to me. Sounded simple. A couple of British notaries have point blank refused on the basis that they don't know me and I should be there in person with my passport so that they can verify who I am. Is this for certain? Surely it's the documents they need to verify, not me? Any body done this successfully?

Rosemary

I have separated your post from the thread that you put it into and also moved it to the main Spain forum.

Rosemary

Boseley

Yes we have gone down this road, right to the end, coincidently just collected my Spanish passport today!!

Forget about British Notaries, go to this link for Legalisation of birth marriage certificates, criminal records ,we had to have two birth certs, one marriage cert. two Criminal record certificates legalised, five in total. Cost then GBP 164.50, four years ago.

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

You will need a criminal record check, see link below

www.acpo.police.uk

This link below is also informative,

How to obtain Spanish citizenship

When you have received all the docs you need, you will have to have them translated, we used Maria Estela Pliego Lirio, who is an official legal translator, sent copies of all docs., that needed translating.

Email [email protected]

My application took two and a half years, her indoors took three years, other than that it was painless.

Hope this helps and good luck with your application

sakany123

Thanks for the information. Did you have all your documents sent to Spain initially and then send them back to be legalised or did you send to a friend in England?

Boseley

Birth & marriage certificates were already here in the Canary Isles, the police checks were applied for online and the certificates posted here. Once received we posted all five to be legalised and when done they returned the same to our home address here in the Canary Islands.

rachelk

Very helpful, thanks. Bookmarking this thread for reference

KieronF

Any other documents that need to be notarised in the UK can then be Apostilled by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Legalisation Dept for a fee of £30 plus postage/courier costs.