Crown Copyright on Birth/death and marriage certificates
Can a photocopy of my British birth, death or marriage certificate be certified by a Notary or be legalised with apostille?
Please note that a UK birth/death/marriage certificate issued by the General Registry Office cannot legally be photocopied as it is subject to Crown copyright. If a photocopy is presented for an apostille, the Foreign Office will refuse to apostille it as this is how they protect and enforce crown copyright on behalf of the British government. If you look at the small print at the bottom of the certificate you will see the official reference to “© Crown Copyright”.
Crown Copyright makes reproduction of Crown copywritten material an infringement, which is a civil offence.
Crown copyright covers material created by civil servants, ministers and government departments and agencies. This includes legislation, government codes of practice, Ordnance Survey mapping, government reports, official press releases, academic articles and many public records. It also includes any signature of a Government official, and any stamps, logos or seals of the Crown.
This means that the instrumental parts of a UK birth, death or marriage certificate cannot be reproduced.
If the birth/death/marriage certificate is issued by the UK General Registry Office then a new certified copy issued by the General Registry Office would need to be ordered, which can be done here:
https://www.gov.uk/order-copy-birth-death-marriage-certificate
Please note that this means that only a certified copy issued by the General Registry Office can be notarised and legalised, not a photocopy.
A notary will be glad to order further copies, which are reasonably priced and can be expedited at an additional cost in case of urgency. Should the documents need to go abroad, the signature of the Registrar on the certified copies issued by the GRO can be directly confirmed by FCDO Apostille in accordance with the Hague Apostille Convention. The stamped Apostille will be stuck on the back of the certificate.
If an original birth/death or marriage certificate pre-dates 1990 , the signature of the registrar or clergyman (on a marriage certificate) may not be on the FCDO database, and it is therefore advisable to apply for a newly-issued certified copy from the GRO, which can then be legalised with Apostille.
If the document needs to be notarised, then the (original) certified copy issued by the General Registry Office/original certificate will be permanently altered by the notarisation process as it will be securely bound to the notarial certificate using an eyelet (a small hole punch reinforced by a metal ring).