How to get apostille for marriage cert for Schengen visa

Hi. Im an Irish citizen living in Northern Ireland with my non-EU spouse (he is Nigerian). We wanted to apply for schengen visa to travel for a holiday to spain, the Spanish embassy 1st said that we could travel there together without a visa as he has a 5yr Residency card in his passport but after reading some of the stories of people trying that i'd prefer not to take the chance.

We then sent off all our documents to spanish embassy for visa but they returned them saying that we need an apostille for our marriage cert as we were married in Nigeria (we assumed that as it was accepted for his residency application it was ok), but i cant find where we can get this done. we have sent 3 emails to Nigeria embassy in London, with no reply, we have tried calling them but just get a continous recorded message & there is no embassy in Belfast for me to visit in person. My fear is now that the apostille will have to stamped by the country we got married in which, being Nigeria, could take a very long time or get lost!

Any advice?

The Apostille would need to be attached by the country who issued the marriage certificate. Nigeria, however, is not a signatory of the Hague convention and thus the legalisation procedure is probably even more complicated.

Thanks for your reply, its been very difficult to find information on this & unfortunately thats the answer i thought it was likely to be

Im assuming it would have to be issued in Nigeria itself & not by the Nigerian embassy then in UK?

I would think their high comission could do that. Look at their web page.

I have tried emailing them & calling but think ill keep on trying as id rather that than have to send off our marriage cert

Again, thanks for your help

As you cannot remarry in ireland, Register your marriage with the irish marriage registry, i think that will work.

Spain seems to be a popular holiday destination. But their embassy is a pain in the a.Settled Status with regards to all visas, even for family members of EU citizens. Why not go to an easy lovely and visa-sane place like Germany?

Your husband has a "Residence Card for the family member of an EEA citizen"?

Note that you should always carry your marriage certificate when you travel. Then if there is any problem with your Residence Card, you can always do a visa-free entry.

joshuaaubin wrote:As you cannot remarry in ireland, Register your marriage with the irish marriage registry, i think that will work.

They are in Northern Ireland. So it would be GRO in the UK http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentc ... /DG_175716

Directive/2004/38/EC wrote:

joshuaaubin wrote:As you cannot remarry in ireland, Register your marriage with the irish marriage registry, i think that will work.

They are in Northern Ireland. So it would be GRO in the UK http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentc ... /DG_175716

They can also register it there, thanks for the supporting advice.

This is all really helpful thank you!

With regards to travelling to an easier country eg Germany, that was actually a country we have been considering its just that we have friends still in spain, but as this trip is for our wedding anniversary id just be happy to get anywhere! However without this apostille stamp id still be too worried about travelling with just our marriage cert.

With regards to creating a record of our marriage in UK as suggested, on their website it says that 1 of us must be British, I am from Northern Ireland and therefore can have dual British/Irish citizenship, however i currently only have an Irish passport & that is how we went down EU residency instead of British, would this make a difference do you think?

craftynick wrote:However without this apostille stamp id still be too worried about travelling with just our marriage cert.

Remember that the primary proof of ability of the non-EU to travel is the Residence Card. Marriage certificate is just a helpful backup in the unlikely event that a border guard has a problem accepting the RC.

craftynick wrote:With regards to creating a record of our marriage in UK as suggested, on their website it says that 1 of us must be British, I am from Northern Ireland and therefore can have dual British/Irish citizenship, however i currently only have an Irish passport & that is how we went down EU residency instead of British, would this make a difference do you think?

No need to have a passport. Lots of British citizens do not have one. Birth certificate would likely do in case you are required to prove citizenship.