Apostille necessary?

Hi all,

We recently applied for a Schengen visa for my non EU partner under Directive 2004/38/EC. The Netherlands Consulate staff only accepted our Australian partnership registration with an apostille, which delayed our visa application and caused additional fees.

I understand that an apostille is sometimes required if the document comes from an exotic country, but applying in Australia with an Australian certificate??

Just wondering if an apostille was required on your marriage or partnership certificates?

When we applied for the same kind of visa at the Spanish Embassy in Beijing in 2013, the head of the visa department said we needed an apostille on our UK civil partnership certificate. This may have been because it was issued by the British Embassy in Vietnam. However, I asked them to show me where it states this in the EEA rules and got quite angry (of course I may have been wrong) and, in the end, he gave us the visa. He said next time we would need the apostille.

The Embassy of the Netherlands in Beijing didn't ask us for an apostille on the UK CP certificate when we applied in 2010 or 2011.