Need a New York marriage certificate with an apostille or embassy legalization?
If you have the original marriage certificate, you can email a copy for a free evaluation. We will advise if your marriage certificate qualifies for legalization by an apostille or foreign embassy.
We can obtain certified copies of marriage certificates from the Marriage Bureau in New York City (marriages registered after 1950), from New York City Municipal Archives (marriages registered before 1950) or from NYS Department of Health in Albany, NY, and have it legalized by an apostille or foreign embassy.
- Order a Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island marriage certificate ONLINE
- Order a New York State marriage certificate ONLINE (marriages registered outside the five borougs of New York City)
- Read more about getting marriage certificates from NYC Municipal Archives.
Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island marriage certificates for foreign use:
All marriage records originating from the five boroughs of New York City (Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island ) are kept in the New York City Marriage Bureau. For an apostille or foreign embassy legalization purposes you will need to obtain an extended certified copy of the marriage certificate with an original signature of the Acting City Clerk. The document must then be presented to the County Clerk 's Office to verify the signature of the Acting City Clerk. The The next step would be New York State Office of the Secretary of State that will issue an apostille (for Hague countries) or foreign certificate (for non-Hague countries). If the document is intended for a non-Hague country, more steps will be required (sometimes, the U.S. State Department in Washington DC, and always the embassy or consulate of the country of intended use).
Look at your marriage certificate... An extended certified copy of NYC marriage certificate intended for foreign use will have the following:
- information about the spouses' parents: names and places of birth
- number of times the spouses were married before
- witnesses' names
This is how your extended marriage certificate will look if the marriage was registered after 1996:
Look at the back of your marriage certificate... There should be:
- a color stamp of the Marriage Bureau on the back of the certificate
- the original signature of the Acting City Clerk on the back of the certificate
This is how your extended marriage certificate will look if the marriage was registered before 1996:
Marriage certificates from other counties of the State of New York:
If you were married outside the five boroughs of New York City, your marriage certificate will be recorded (a) by the local county registrar, and (b) in the New York State Health Department.
Locally issued marriage certificates have to be authenticated by the respective Office of the County Clerk in the county where your marriage was registered. The requirements differ a lot from county to county. Please email a copy of your marriage certificate for a free evaluation.
We can order a certified copy for you, and then have it apostilled or legalized by a foreign embassy. We do not order from local registrars. We obtain certified copies from New York State Deparment of Health in Albany, New York. The processing takes around three weeks.
Your marriage certificate qualifies? Mail the original to us...
If you have the original marriage certificate, and it qualifies for an apostille / embassy legalization, mail it to us and we will get an apostille / embassy seal for it
New York apostille: $175 (USPS Priority within the U.S. is included)
New York Apostille / Embassy Legalization Order Form (PDF file)What is a "certified copy" of the marriage certificate?
A certified copy is an official copy of the document issued by a the City Registrar, the NYS Department of Health or a local registrar and guaranteed to be a true and exact copy of the original document kept on file in this office. Upon request, the above agencies will issue a certified copy of the marriage certificate. In most cases, certified copies bear the Seal of the agency, the signature of the state official (e.g. the City Clerk, director of Vital Statistics or local registrar) and the statement that the document is in fact a true and correct copy of the original document.
Please note...
Notarized copies of marriage certificates are not acceptable! In fact, New York notaries by law cannot notarize copies of vital records.
Copies certified as true copies by the document custodian (you) are not acceptable! You do need the original document.
Some foreign countries require that certified copies of marriage certificates are recent, e.g. were issued within the last six or twelve months.
Related articles
- Apostilled copies of marriage certificates (before 1950) from NYC Municipal Archives
- Legalization of a New York marriage certificate for China
- Apostilles for New York City marriage certificates issued before 1996
- Certificates of Non-Impediment for New York City Residents
- Free document evaluation: is your document eligible for an apostille?
All kinds of NY documents.