UK marriage or civil partnership certificate translation into Turkish

What the certificate shows

A marriage in England or Wales is recorded by the superintendent registrar, and since May 2021 the entry is held on an electronic register that names both parents of each spouse. A certified copy (evlilik belgesi, evlenme kayıt örneği) can be bought from the register office that conducted the marriage or from the General Register Office. It carries the date and place of marriage, the full names, ages, occupations and addresses of the couple, their parents' names and the witnesses. A civil partnership certificate follows the same layout. Church of England marriages produce the same certificate through the parish register. Scottish and Northern Irish certificates come from National Records of Scotland and GRONI.

We translate every printed field, the marginal notes, the registrar's signature and the crown seal, and we render UK occupations and the phrase “after banns” or “by certificate” with a translator's note so that a Turkish reader understands the form of the ceremony.

Registering the marriage at the consulate

A Turkish citizen who marries in the UK is expected to have the marriage entered in the Turkish family register. The consulate does this from the UK certificate, the couple's identity documents and, for a foreign spouse, that person's full birth certificate and passport, with a £10 postal order for the fee. For this step the consulate's own note says that documents obtained from British authorities, including the marriage certificate, are not sent out for a sworn translation; the consular officer reads the English original. Our page on registering a UK marriage at the Turkish Consulate lists what to bring.

Turkish family law has no civil partnership, so the consulate cannot record one as a marriage. A civil partnership certificate is translated where a Turkish court, notary or bank needs to understand the legal relationship, for example in an inheritance or property matter.

Uses that need our notarised translation

• Recording the marriage directly at a nüfus müdürlüğü in Türkiye when you are already there and the consulate route is impractical.
• A residence permit (ikamet izni) for a British spouse on the basis of marriage to a Turkish citizen; the Göç İdaresi wants the marriage shown in a Turkish-language document. See Turkish residence permit for a British spouse.
• Citizenship by marriage after three years, where the certificate proves the start date of the marriage.
• Tapu transactions between spouses, matrimonial property claims and divorce proceedings in a Turkish court.
• Bank accounts, insurance and pension survivor claims in Türkiye that turn on marital status.

Apostille: paper only for GRO documents

The certificate must carry an FCDO apostille before it is translated. GOV.UK states that you cannot get an e-Apostille for birth, death, marriage, civil partnership and adoption certificates, or any other document from the General Register Office, so allow for the paper service: £45, usually up to 25 working days, plus postage. We can place that order through a UK partner for the FCDO fee and £20 handling, or you apply yourself on GOV.UK. Once the apostilled certificate is scanned to us, the translation is sworn and notarised in Ankara within a few working days, and the notarised translation can itself be apostilled at the kaymakamlık for £15 if a court or tapu office asks for a legalised translation as well.

Price for this document

A marriage certificate with apostille is 1 to 2 pages of 1,000 characters, so the translation is £6.50 to £13.00, with the notary tariff at about £13.50 per page plus £5 handling on top. Expect £25 to £45 in total for translation and notarisation; add £15 for an apostille of the translation. No UK VAT is charged. Delivery is a scan by e-mail followed by the wet-sealed original by courier for £30, either to the UK or to the person handling your case in Türkiye. We have no UK office and cannot hand documents over in person.