Dcument legalisation problems

[Aimar]

Hi all, perhaps someone can help. I am a UK citizen relocating to Spain. My spouse as a third country national is in the process of submitting her short stay visa application to join me. The spanish consulate has requested we get our marriage certificate legalised. One of the requirements for this is a '' legalised'' color copy of all the pages of my passport (UK) by a spanish notary in Spain. My question is this, will a simple notary certification of a true copy suffice? or is it the case that I have to get an apostille on the document after notarisation in spain, bearing in mind it is going to be presented to Spanish authorities. Any legal eagles about ? thanks.

[86ti]

What country issued the certificate? If it is part of the Hague Convention then an Apostille should suffice in principle if not then the legalisation process is usually more complicated. If it is an EU country than the Apostille should not be required as far as I know.

[Aimar]

Thank you for your reply. The certificate is issued in Nigeria which is not a signatory to the Hague convention, therefore it has to be legalised diplomatically. This involves getting it authenticated by the ministry of external affairs in Nigeria. This is understood, my problem is with the supporting documents i.e legalised copy of my passport by a notary in Spain. My question is, if the passport copy is certified by a spanish notary would there still be a requirement to have it legalised i.e apostilled ? confusingly the Spanish often use the term ''legalise'' as opposed to ''certify'' especially in Spain. My understanding is that a document notarised in Spain by a Spanish notary does not require a further apostille to be presented to Spanish authorities. I could be wrong.

[86ti]

The Spanish can only put an Apostille on documents that have been issued by their own authorities. I think, the notary public only certifies that the copies are indeed from your passport (I doubt that a notary public can actually verify the authenticity of a foreign document).