When Sergei rang me, he was in a huge hurry to progress paperwork relating to citizenship of his newborn son, who had been born in the United Kingdom. Sergei and his wife, Ivana, originated from Romania. They were keen to apply for Romanian citizenship for their son, so that he may enjoy the benefits of citizenship there. This task required me to notarise the UK birth certificate and arrange for it to be apostilled. When I am required to notarise a birth certificate, I will order a new official copy from the Registrar of births. This allows me to apply my internationally recognised notarial guarantee as to the validity and authenticity of the birth certificate. When ordering a new birth certificate from the UK Registrar of births (through the General Register Office), a fast service costing £38 takes two days to receive but the slower cheaper service (costing about £14) takes at least three weeks to arrive.
Not all citizenship applications require the UK birth certificate to be notarised. Some only require an apostille to be applied directly to the birth certificate. That is something we need to check carefully, so that you do not incur unnecessary expenditure for a notarial stamp that is not required.
