Marriage Certificate Authentication

Any time when you need to use your Canadian Marriage Certificate outside of Canada it needs to go through proper Marriage Certificate Authentication process in Canada or how it is also called: Marriage Certificate Apostille or Marriage Certificate Legalization process in Canada.

This process is required to be employed to make sure that the Canadian Marriage Certificate can be recognized in foreign countries legally. You cannot bring the Canadian Marriage Certificate to foreign government authority without prior and proper authentication and legalization service in Canada. The certificate just will not be accepted by them because the foreign government authority is not aware if this certificate has been obtained legally in Canada. For this reason, the Marriage Certificate Authentication or Marriage Certificate Apostille in Canada must be always done before leaving Canadian border.

The Legalization Service Centre offers the Marriage Certificate Authentication, Marriage Certificate Legalization and Marriage Certificate Attestation service in Canada. We will walk you through this process and complete the authentication and legalization service in Ottawa from A to Z.

This process in general requires two steps:

1. Marriage Certificate Authentication at the Global Affairs Canada;
2. Marriage Certificate  Legalization at the Embassy/Consulate in Canada

The marriage certificate authentication process (the first step) can take up to 20 days to complete as the Global Affairs Canada receives hundreds of documents every day from all over Canada. Since the processing resources at the Department of Foreign Affairs are limited, this process cannot be done fast by them. If you require your documents authenticated as soon as possible, you will have to come to the Global Affairs Canada authentication sector in person or get the assistance from the Legalization Service Centre if you live in other cities than Ottawa. Our agents will go to the Global Affairs Canada authentication sector in person and authenticate all your documents within one day.

The document legalization process at the Embassies and Consulates in Canada is the second step in this authentication of documents chain. The Canadian marriage certificate as well as other Canadian certificates must be legalized first before they can be used in foreign countries.

The foreign government authorities will believe the document is genuine only if they see a legalization stamp on the document pressed by their Embassy or Consulate in Canada. That is why it is important that you get the legalization of documents service for your marriage certificate before you go for international trip.

This step may take up to 7 to 10 business days depending on the paper load in the Embassy or Consulate. Please contact us and we will give you an idea how long it will take to authenticate and legalize your marriage certificate at the particular foreign Embassy or Consulate in Canada.

We have over 5 years of successful marriage certificate authentication service in Canada. If you were asked to present your marriage certificate apostilled or attested, do not be worried as the authentication and legalization of the Canadian marriage certificate is the same as marriage certificate Apostille or marriage certificate attestation.

We strongly recommend you to use only highly skilled and professional authentication and legalization service companies in Canada like Legalization Service Centre as only experienced and seasoned companies like us know all aspects and requirements for this process. We can provide you the complete service from identifying what your needs are to shipping the legalized documents directly to the country of destination.

All you need to do is to send the original document or a certified copy to our office and we will do the rest.

If you are currently outside of Canada or you do not have an extra copy for document authentication process, you can contact online the vital statistics office of your province and request them to issue you a copy of your certificate and courier it directly to our office in Ottawa.

This arrangement will help you to save time and reduce shipment expenses. Make sure that you indicate our mailing address during the application process. Please click here for the list of Canadian government departments that issue the Marriage Certificates.