MimosaB

My daughter has been living and working in Greece for several years and is now applying for citizenship. She asked me to send her birth certificate which was still here in the UK, which I did using Royal Mail Track and Trace service. After two weeks holding our breath (as the Greek postal service leaves a lot to be desired) it arrived. Next thing was that my daughter contacted me to say it needs to be legalised in the UK before it accepted, so she'll have to sent it back again. On checking the gov.uk website it appears that this is indeed correct and can only be done in the UK. Is this correct? If so, this means she'll have to send it back again (or apply directly herself). Can it not be done by the embassy in Athens?

Thanks

Azarel

The GOV website says they should be legalised in the country they were issued, so I assume not. I had to have my birth certificate legalised in the UK for my citizenship application. To save time I had the legalisation service order it directly and legalise it then send it to a relative in the UK who posted it on to me with some other documents. You could get your daughter to send it directly to them to save some time, they can then post it on to you to send back to her.

MimosaB

Thank you - I wish she'd done her homework before I sent the document over in the first place! It looks like we'll need to start again.

calman014

One option might be to apply for a new one and have it legalised at the same time, rather than risking sending the other one back again..??

Azarel

calman014 Yeah, that's what I did. The service I used ordered it, legalised it, and then posted it on. Cost a bit more obviously, but good in terms of time.

MimosaB Ask your daughter to check to see if she needs a UK police check (ACRO) for her citizenship application. If so, she'll need that legalised too. I had the police deliver the ACRO directly to the legalisation service where it was legalised along with the birth certificate, and they posted them both together to save some costs/hassle.