No one can notarize a marriage certificate. A marriage certificate is a vital record, and notaries in every state are prohibited from making certified copies of vital records. If someone has asked you for a notarized marriage certificate, what they almost certainly need is either a certified copy from the government office that recorded the marriage, or, for use in another country, that certified copy with an apostille or a chain of authentication attached.
Why Notaries Cannot Certify Marriage Certificates
A notary public is authorized to witness signatures, verify the identity of a signer, and administer oaths. The notary’s seal says nothing about whether a document’s contents are accurate or legally valid. It confirms that a real person signed something in front of the notary.
Marriage certificates, along with birth and death certificates, are classified as vital records. State law reserves the authority to certify copies of these records to the government agency that created and stores the originals. A notary who stamped a copy of a marriage certificate would be stepping into that agency’s role, and no state permits it. A notary asked to do so is required to decline and point you to the office that holds the record.
What a Notary Can Do Around a Marriage
Notaries do have a role with some documents connected to a marriage, just not the certificate itself.
The most common one is a certified translation of a foreign-language marriage certificate. When a translated certificate is submitted to a federal agency like USCIS, the translator must sign a certification stating they are competent in both languages and that the translation is accurate, including their name, signature, address, and date.1U.S. Department of State. Information about Translating Foreign Documents Federal rules don’t require that certification to be notarized, but many agencies and courts give more weight to one where the translator’s signature was notarized, and it’s inexpensive to add.
A notary can also notarize an affidavit or sworn statement about a marriage, such as an affidavit of marriage for an insurance claim or a declaration supporting an immigration petition. In those situations the notary is authenticating the signer’s identity and signature on the affidavit. The marriage certificate itself is still untouched.
How to Get a Certified Copy for Domestic Use
For things like changing your name on a driver’s license, filing a joint tax return, or adding a spouse to an insurance policy, you need a certified copy. That’s not a photocopy. A certified copy carries an official stamp, a raised seal, or both, from the office that issued it, confirming that it matches the record on file.
Request it from the vital records office in the state where the marriage was recorded.2USAGov. How to Get a Copy of a Marriage Certificate or a Marriage License Depending on the state, that office may be called the County Clerk, County Recorder, or Bureau of Vital Statistics. You’ll generally need to provide the full legal names of both spouses at the time of the marriage and the date it took place, along with a government-issued photo ID.
Most offices take requests in person, by mail, or online. Fees generally run from about $10 to $35 per copy. In-person requests are often fulfilled the same day; mail requests can take several weeks.
Access to the record is not unlimited. In most states, certified copies are released only to the individuals named on the certificate, immediate family members, legal representatives, or someone with a court order.
Apostille for Use in a Hague Convention Country
If you need to use your marriage certificate abroad, a certified copy alone usually won’t be enough. For countries that belong to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention, the added layer is an apostille, a standardized certificate confirming that the seal and signature on your certified copy belong to a legitimate government official. 129 countries participate in the convention.3HCCH. Apostille Convention Status Table
An apostille doesn’t verify what the certificate says, only that it came from a real government office. To get one, first obtain a certified copy from the vital records office where the marriage was recorded. Then submit that copy to the designated authority in the issuing state. For state-issued vital records, that’s typically the Secretary of State.4USAGov. Authenticate an Official Document for Use Outside the U.S. Fees generally run from about $10 to $25, with processing times from a few business days to several weeks.
Authentication for Non-Hague Countries
Countries that haven’t joined the Hague Convention don’t accept apostilles. The document instead moves through a chain of authentication and legalization, with each step depending on the one before it.
- Start with a certified copy from the vital records office, the same as for an apostille.
- Submit it to the Secretary of State in the issuing state, who verifies the seal and signature of the issuing official.
- Send the state-certified document to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Authentications, which confirms the state certification is legitimate.4USAGov. Authenticate an Official Document for Use Outside the U.S.
- Submit the federally authenticated document to the embassy or consulate of the destination country for legalization.
Order matters. Skipping the state certification and going directly to the federal level will get the document rejected. Each agency charges its own fee, and the full chain can take several weeks. If the destination country also requires a translation, that translation generally has to run through the same chain, so plan for the added time and cost.