Apostille for a Florida Marriage Certificate

A Florida marriage certificate is issued by the clerk of the circuit court in the county where the marriage license was obtained, not necessarily where the ceremony happened and not by the state health department. If you married on a beach in the Keys on a license issued in Miami-Dade, the certified copy comes from the Miami-Dade Clerk of the Circuit Court.

The Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics also maintains marriage records and can issue certified copies for marriages recorded since 1927. Either source works for an apostille as long as the copy is certified and bears the official's signature and seal. What does not work is the decorative certificate the officiant handed you at the ceremony.

The reasons cluster into a handful of situations we see repeatedly in Kendall. Registering a US marriage with a foreign civil registry so it is recognized in that country. Applying for spousal residency or a family visa abroad. Claiming citizenship by descent, where a chain of marriage and birth records has to be authenticated. Changing a surname on a foreign passport. Settling an estate that has property in another country.

Each of those receiving institutions has its own requirements about how recent the certified copy must be and whether a translation is needed. The apostille is the easy part; matching the receiving office's expectations is the part worth asking about first.

Marriage certificates rarely travel alone. A remarriage often requires the prior divorce decree authenticated as well, and a divorce decree is a court record obtained as a certified copy from the clerk, then apostilled the same way. Court-ordered name changes follow the same path.

Where a spouse cannot be present to file, we notarize the power of attorney or authorization that lets someone else handle the submission. Where a foreign registry requires a sworn declaration about the marriage, we notarize that affidavit. Those are the notarial acts that genuinely belong in a marriage certificate package.

Spanish-speaking countries account for most of the marriage apostilles we help with here, and their requirements are not uniform. Spain generally requires a translation by a sworn translator recognized by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Colombia and Argentina commonly accept a certified translation with a notarized translator affidavit prepared in the United States. Others want the translation apostilled separately from the certificate.

The safest sequence in most cases is to apostille the certified copy first and translate afterward, because the translation then covers the apostille text as well. But confirm with the receiving office, because reversing that order after the fact means paying for the work twice.

Call with the county that issued the license, the destination country, and what the receiving institution actually asked for in writing. That last detail resolves most of the uncertainty in one sentence, and it is the difference between a package that clears and one that comes back.

We notarize the supporting documents at your home or office anywhere in Kendall and Miami-Dade, review the certified copy before it is submitted, and handle tracked shipping to and from Tallahassee.