Foreign Marriage Certificate

I'm British and married a Japanese citizen in Japan. We have a Japanese marriage certificate as well as a letter from the British embassy stating in English that we produced a valid marriage certificate. The latter seems to be the closest thing we have in English to a marriage certificate.

The UK foreign office offers a deposit service but it would mean submitting our Japanese certificate forever. We cannot get it back - ever.

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travelling-and ... depositing

What are the pros and cons of doing this please?

WooHoo wrote:I'm British and married a Japanese citizen in Japan. We have a Japanese marriage certificate as well as a letter from the British embassy stating in English that we produced a valid marriage certificate. The latter seems to be the closest thing we have in English to a marriage certificate.

Did you ask your registrar whether they can issue an "international" marriage licenses? Lots of places do this for a moderate, and it would usually be in English, French and maybe Spanish.

The deposit service would not solve your main problem, which is that the marriage certificate is not in English. You can get a certified interpreter to write a translation, but unfortunately you are often required to submit a recent translation, even if it is an old document.

Tom

That's ludicrous! Thanks for your reply.

I suppose these certified translators charge a bomb?!

Unfortunately, I didn't get an international marriage. Never heard of them in fact. With that said, is there any other way out of this situation? I just want a marriage certificate in English!!

Thanks again for your reply.

WooHoo wrote:Unfortunately, I didn't get an international marriage. Never heard of them in fact. With that said, is there any other way out of this situation?

Ask your registrar in Japan. They are the only place that can issue a certificate in English that is always accepted. Any other translation or certificate is only going to be of limited use.

That being said, translators do charge a lot (around 1 per line), but since there is usually little text on the marriage certificate, the translation should still be affordable. But you should make sure that it is actually need and accepted before you get it.

I do not think that the Japanese do translations of their own documents.

What you should do or should have done is to get the apostille either through your embassy in Japan (the UK embassy doesn't do that) or directly from the Japanese Minstry of Foreign Affairs (don't recall the exact name) but notary publics can do that too.

The recommendation that we got from the UK embassy while we were still in Japan (note: neither of us is British) was to bring the marriage certificate to a notary public who certified my signature under my own translation and attached an apostille on a separate page. At least the Home Office didn't have a problem with that when we applied for the Residence Card.

Also note that you can get as much marriage certificates as you can pay for from your registering whatever-yakusho.

I do not know what you need to do when you have left Japan already.

EDIT: here is my post from last November
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... ht=#126874

Thanks for your replies. My colleague (a Birmingham City Councilor) who has had many dealings with immigrants and the immigration system told me that it might be possible to re-marry in England. I told him that I'm married under Japanese law which is fully recognised in Britain so I wouldn't be able to get married twice. He replied by saying you cannot marry two different people in Japan and the UK but there is nothing stopping you marry the same girl twice.

Sounds a bit wacko to me, but I'll go and check it out with the registrar soon.

WooHoo, I don't think that is right at all. Neither of you will be able to certify that you are unmarried. The Japanese marriage is undoubtedly recognised by the UK under the terms of the Foreign Marriages Act 1892.

The marriage certificate in Japan .... is it possible as in the UK to get another official document from the Register Office in the area where the marriage was performed? If so why not do that and then use that in the procedure at the embassy.

Or as already suggested, get a certified translation done. My wife and I married in Thailand. In the UK we have never had a problem proving the marriage by showing the original Thai marriage certificate, and a certified translation into English.

Hi John, yep it sounds bonkers to me too. I'll report back to the forum when I've phoned the registrar.

As for the marriage certificate translation. Have you needed to have it translated often to make sure it's constantly a 'recent translation'? As thsths alluded to.

I do have an official looking document from the UK embassy in Japan which states we're married under Japanese law. I thought that would suffice. Did they give you anything like hat in Thailand?

Jonathan

Have you needed to have it translated often to make sure it's constantly a 'recent translation'? As thsths alluded to.

Absolutely not, we would still use the translation done back in 2001, if there ever was a need. However, in truth, apart from just after when my wife arrived in the UK ... such as when obtaining NI number .... I can't think we have ever needed to show it in the UK.

I do have an official looking document from the UK embassy in Japan which states we're married under Japanese law. I thought that would suffice. Did they give you anything like hat in Thailand?

No, not at all, but when applying for the spouse visa we did need to produce not just the Thai original but also a certified translation into English. Indeed a number of documents needed to be translated into English, such as her birth certificate. Also, although probably not necessary for the visa, we also got her university degree certificate translated, and that was useful when she wanted to do a Masters degree course here in the UK.

So I would say, think ahead, and get translated anything that might possibly be needed in the UK, where just having the Japanese original might cause a problem.

But don't worry about it too much, in the sense that certified translations can be done in the UK, for example at Birmingham's Brasshouse Language Centre, the UK's largest specialist language school, where they teach nearly 30 different languages, and where my wife is the Thai language tutor. Japanese is certainly one of the languages taught there. As well as teaching they have a thriving department able to do translations and interpreting. Don't ask me how much they charge ..... sorry, don't know.

woohoo
I ask to my embassy if was important to do the process in the foreing office and they say that you recorded your marriage in there is important if you gonna buy a house togeter or something like that . They ask to my husband if he was going back to the uk soon and they say to him to depossit himself the document in the foreing office in the uk.
we did get the certifecate translate into english that cost me around 20 pounds and the embassy make the letter that is an original copy.
something else make every document apostille in japan.