I just had a baby and to get a Swiss birth certificate I need to show them our Marriage Certificate which has to have the Apostille stamp on it (never heard of this until now). The problem is that I was told that it can only be done in Australia and I was wondering if anyone else has done this and how long did it take?
You can apply for a new extract of your marriage certificate from Births, Deaths and Marriages in the state where you were married. That is sufficient. I did this online and it takes a couple of weeks to arrive. You will need this for every child born in Switzerland too, since it must be less than 6 months old.
Really? I have the original Marriage Certificate and it wasnt good enough for them as they require the Apostille stamp on the back. How long ago did you register the birth?
From www.apostille.com.au "An Apostille (Certificate) is a square approximately 9cm long, stamped onto the reverse side of a single page public document."
Does your original marriage certificate have this? Mine has that red seal from NSW in 1999 and I still needed a new extract less than 6 months old. My son was born in 2006.
No, the original marriage cert doesnt have that stamp They must have changed the process as they charge for the stamp now. Just really annoyed with Toll Transitions who are supposed to be experts in expatriation.. they should have told me that I needed that stamp! I need to register the baby as we want to go to the UK for Christmas.. what a stress over something so little.
I was told by the hospital what I needed it to register the birth beforehand. You can get permission at the German boarder to enter without a passport - we did this with our newborn. Perhaps the UK has a similar thing.
Yes. Less than 6 months old. We needed new birth certificate extracts too. International versions with multiple languages on the back. Portugal was a nightmare for my husband who sent him something in handwriting that he couldn't read.
Is the apostille the same as the Australian government saying it is a valid document? If so, the embassy in Geneva (check this) does this for Aussie citizens. Call to make an appointment, or check out the web site. Might be in the faq.
They also changed the system for marriage certificates for Australia a couple of years ago - our original marriage certificate was issued by our church minister the day we were married in 1998, but the new ones are issued and sent to you after the wedding day - the one you sign as part of the wedding ceremony is different to the 'official' document.
To get ours re-issued they actually required our original, as they didn't have all the information stored in the database to create the 'official' one - then they put all the information onto their computer system, cross matched and sent us our new one and our original back...
We use Apostilles in our business. They are certifications that the documents are correct and authentistic. They are usually carried out by a notary or lawyer.
Unfortunately no as the Marriage Certificate already had a note stating that it was a valid document and it was not sufficient. The only way to get this Apostille Certification is in the Country of Origin - well for Australia anyway.
This is quite important to know for anyone that is in the process of moving to Switzerland. Apply for the Apostille Certification for all official documents ie Marriage Certificates, Birth Certificates etc.. as it seems that Switzerland is getting tougher on protecting themselves from Fraudulent Documents (fair enough).
Looks like the only option for me is to Express Courier the Marriage Certificate back to Australia to a friend and ask her to go and apply for the Apostille Certification. As at the moment there is a long wait I will need to go through a private Notary/Apostille office to help speed up the process which unfortunately will be costly and with no guarantee that the documents will arrive back in time to apply for the Birth Certificate and then apply for the UK Passport in time for Christmas
Did you look at applying for it online? You might need a certificate with that Apostille number first though.
When we moved to the UK I needed an extract of my marriage certificate to renew my visa. My father went to the BDM office and it was sent out to him the next day. He needed to take his birth certificate along for id.
You could request a new certificate from the government agency and have it sent to a friend / family member. They can then take the certificate in for apostille verification, and post it to you.
The problem is time and if I express courier it to Australia it will get there in 2 days whereas if I order the Marriage Certificate online and get it sent to a friend I will have to firstly wait on the processing time (it says on their website up to 3 weeks) and then wait for it to be posted to a friend who will then need to go to DFAT to then apply for the Apostille Certification which takes 3 days. So the only option i can see is to express courier it to a friend who will then apply on my behalf. I dont think I will go through a private company as there seems to be no need - so at least I wont have to fork out $200+ for one certification.
I wonder what would happen if you just didn't do it. I mean a birth has to be registered, there is a mother and a father and if you both have the same family name what business is it of the state to believe or not believe your marriage in Australia?
We had a baby here in August and all we needed was a marriage certificate that was less than 6 months old, so we got a new one from Births, Deaths and Marriages in Oz. But this stuff might vary from canton to canton? (but would think it shouldn't be THAT different... but who knows.. Swiss are such sticklers about things sometimes...)