Different countries have different documentation requirements and if you’ve been previously married, adopted or changed your name, finding out which documents you need to have translated can be a headache. Hopefully, this case study will provide you with some enlightenment!
Our client, who we’ll call Miss Collins for anonymity, was referred to us by her wedding planner at Elevation Weddings in Austria. Miss Collins had been previously married, but for her fiancé, who we’ll call Mr Williams, this was to be his first marriage.
They required the following documentation, which normally needs to have been issued within 6 months of the wedding:
· Both the bride and groom’s birth certificates* including the parents’ names,
· Proof of residence for both the bride and groom (i.e. driving licence, council tax bill)
· Photocopies of both of their passports certified by a court or notary public
· Miss Collins’ previous marriage certificate*
· Miss Collins’ decree absolute*
· Both the bride and groom’s Certificate of No Impediment* the Registrar should issue two copies of the Certificate of No Impediment. On one certificate the bride’s name will appear first, and on the other the groom’s name will be at the top. Both versions will be needed.
*These documents needed to be legalised by the FCO (see our previous blog: Legalisation Explained)
Once Miss Collins had received all the documents, she posted both birth certificates and both Certificate of No Impediment to the FCO to be legalised. As the translations were required in Austria quite urgently Miss Collins arranged for the legalised originals to be returned directly to us so that we could send them on to the wedding planner, together with the translations. Please note, however, that marriage in Austria is an exceptional case and we do not normally require you to post us your original documents. The legalisation process takes around 2-3 days. Meanwhile, Miss Collins sent us photocopies of the other documents for us to provide a quote and make a start on the translation, while they awaited the delivery of the final copies.
Due to circumstances beyond the bride and groom’s control, there was a delay in getting obtaining the relevant divorce documents which left us with a very tight time frame. Ideally the Austrian registrar requires the certified translation and the original documents 8-10 weeks prior to the intended date of marriage and this would now no longer be possible
Once we had received all the necessary documentation and payment, we proceeded with the translation, which took two working days. The translation was then proofread, before being emailed to the client for approval. Our client was unable to read the German, however we required Miss Collins to confirm that all of the names and place names were spelt correctly, to avoid any administration problems in Austria.
Once Miss Collins had approved the draft translation, we issued a certified translation. This included copies of each of the original documents and their corresponding apostilles, the translation of all the documents and the apostilles, and a declaration in both English and German stating that we had provided a true translation.
In this case, at their request, the bride and groom collected the certified translation and the original documents from our offices in Sheffield. Normally we would send the certified translation directly to Miss Collins and Mr Williams’ wedding planner in Austria via the Royal Mail’s International Signed For service. However, given the tight timeframe and the fact that international postal service takes 3-5 working days, following our liaison between the wedding planner, the client and the Austrian Registrar, the latter agreed that on this occasion the bride and groom could present the certified translation on their arrival in Austria.
Please note that this information has not been endorsed by any official bodies and is purely based on our own experience and information from online sources. Always check the requirements with the local registrar where you intend to marry.
For more information on getting married in Austria, please see the sites below.
Austrian Government’s Advice Site