How to Notarise UK Documents in Australia

UK documents rarely need an Australian notary. A UK birth, marriage or death certificate is already a certified copy of a register entry, in English, and most Australian bodies accept it with a plain certified copy. A notary matters more when you sign UK paperwork here, such as a property transfer, a bank form or a power of attorney.

Key takeaways

• A UK certificate issued by a register office is itself a certified copy of the entry. A photocopy of it is not.
• For Home Affairs and most Australian bodies, a copy certified by an authorised person is usually enough. No apostille and no translation are normally needed.
• Ask for the full birth certificate, which shows the parents. The short version often falls short for citizenship and family claims.
• England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each keep their own registers. Order from the right one.
• UK documents signed in Australia may need a notary and then an apostille from DFAT. The UK body's own instructions decide.

Do UK documents need to be notarised for use in Australia?

Usually not. An Australian notary cannot confirm what a UK register says, so notarising a UK certificate adds little for an Australian reader. What Australian bodies normally want is the original certificate or a certified copy of it, made by someone who has sighted the original.

For a visa, the Department of Home Affairs generally asks for clear colour scans of the originals and sometimes for certified copies. A Justice of the Peace or another authorised person can make those copies for free, so paying a notary for a domestic purpose is often unnecessary. Follow the Home Affairs document checklist for your visa stream, and our notary or JP guide explains who can certify what.

An apostille is also rarely asked for. The United Kingdom and Australia are both parties to the Hague Apostille Convention, so where an Australian body does want UK authentication, an apostille from the UK side is the normal form. Check the HCCH status table for the current position, and only order one when the body that receives your document asks for it.

Short or full UK birth certificate: which one do you need?

A UK birth can be recorded on two kinds of certificate. The short version shows the child's name, sex, date and place of birth. The full version, sometimes called the long form, is a copy of the whole register entry and also shows the parents' names and the informant.

Most Australian uses that involve family links need the full certificate: citizenship by descent, partner and parent visas, a child's passport, and anything where you must show who your parents are. A short certificate can prove your date of birth, but it cannot prove a relationship, so it is a common reason for a request for more information. If you only hold a short certificate, order the full one from the register office that holds the entry.

Which UK register office issues your certificate?

There is no single UK registry. Births, marriages and deaths are recorded separately in England and Wales, in Scotland, and in Northern Ireland, each with its own general register office and local registrars. A certificate has to come from the jurisdiction where the event was registered, so a Glasgow birth is ordered from the Scottish records, not from England.

Two details catch people out. First, certificates from Wales are often bilingual, with Welsh and English side by side; the English text is usually enough and no translation is needed. Second, marriages in England and Wales have been registered in an electronic register since May 2021, and certificates issued from it look different from older ones and show both parents of each party. Neither change makes an earlier certificate invalid.

UK document	Issued by	Common Australian use
Full birth certificate	The register office for England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland	Citizenship by descent, visas, passports for children
Marriage or civil partnership certificate	The register office where it was registered	Partner visas, name changes, family claims
Death certificate	The register office where the death was registered	Estates, superannuation, insurance
Police certificate	The UK body that issues police certificates for immigration	Visas, some professional registrations
Degree certificate and transcript	The university that awarded it	Skills assessments, employers, further study
Deed poll (name change)	You, often enrolled at a UK court	Linking an old name to a new one

What about a UK police certificate?

If Home Affairs asks for police certificates, it usually wants one from each country where you have lived for a total of 12 months or more in the last ten years since turning 16. For the UK, that is a police certificate issued for immigration purposes, which covers the whole of the United Kingdom. A basic criminal record check made for employment may not be the same thing, so read the visa checklist and order the type it names.

Apply for it yourself from Australia; it is sent to you and you upload it. It does not need a notary, and an Australian notary cannot add anything to it. If a UK body instead asks you for fingerprints or an Australian police check, that runs the other way and our criminal record check guide covers it.

Do UK degrees need to be certified or verified?

Australian employers, universities and skills assessors usually accept a certified copy of a UK degree certificate and transcript, made by someone who has seen the originals. Some also ask for independent verification, and a number of UK universities confirm awards through an official degree checking service or their own registry. Ask the receiving body which it wants before you pay for anything.

Note that DFAT does not legalise foreign education documents, even if an Australian notary has certified them. If a third country wants your UK degree apostilled, that is done on the UK side. For Australian qualifications going the other way, see our guide to a certified copy of a university degree.

What if you sign UK documents in Australia?

This is where most British people in Australia meet a notary. A UK bank, solicitor, land registry process, pension scheme or company may send you a document to sign in front of a witness. What kind of witness they need is set by the UK body, and it varies a lot.

• An independent adult witness. Many UK forms and deeds only need someone who is not a party or a relative to watch you sign. An Australian notary is not required, though some people choose one.
• A certifier for identity documents. UK banks and pension providers often ask for certified copies of your passport and proof of address, and may list who may certify. A notary is usually on that list; a JP sometimes is not, because the body is overseas.
• A notary, with or without an apostille. Some UK bodies, and many courts, want a notarial certificate and an apostille. In Australia the notary witnesses your signature and DFAT then issues the apostille.

Read the instructions twice before you book anything. Paying for a notary and an apostille when a witness would do is common, and so is the opposite, which means signing again. Our guides to selling overseas property and overseas bank accounts cover the usual cases, and sending Australian documents to the UK covers the apostille step.

What about a UK power of attorney?

A UK power of attorney signed in Australia is a document where the rules really do differ. A lasting power of attorney for England and Wales has its own forms, witnesses and registration, and Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own systems again. An Australian enduring power of attorney is a different instrument and is not automatically recognised in the UK.

If you need someone to act for you in the UK, ask a UK solicitor which document to use before anything is signed, then follow their witnessing instructions exactly. Where they ask for a notary, the notary checks your identity and that you understand what you are signing, and DFAT can add an apostille afterwards. Our international power of attorney guide explains the general shape.

What if your name has changed since the UK document was issued?

Name differences are the most common snag. A UK birth certificate in a birth name, a marriage certificate, a UK deed poll and an Australian change of name certificate may all be needed to join the dots. Provide the chain in order, and keep each link: a deed poll that is not enrolled is still a valid record of the change for many purposes, but some bodies ask for an enrolled one or extra evidence.

If a document carries an apostille and the name on it no longer matches your passport, that is not a fault in the apostille. It certifies the signature and seal, not your current name. Our guides to name change deeds and apostille name mismatches show how to link the names.

How do you prepare UK documents for an Australian application?

1. Read the receiving body's checklist and note whether it wants originals, certified copies or colour scans.
2. Check which version you hold, and order the full certificate if a relationship must be shown.
3. Order from the right register office for England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
4. Gather the name-change chain if your names differ between documents.
5. Certify copies through a JP or other authorised person if copies are asked for, and keep the originals.

What does this look like in practice?

Here is an illustration, not a real case. Sarah, born in Manchester, lives in Brisbane. She is preparing a parent visa application for her mother, and at the same time selling a flat in Edinburgh.

For the visa she orders her full birth certificate from the England and Wales records, because her short certificate does not show her mother's name, and she uploads colour scans with a certified copy made by a JP. For the flat, her Scottish solicitor sends a deed to sign in front of a witness and a separate identity form that must be certified by a notary. She signs the deed in front of an independent adult, as instructed, and takes only the identity form and her passport to a notary. No apostille is needed, because the solicitor did not ask for one.

In short

UK certificates are English-language certified copies of a register entry, so for Australian use they usually need nothing more than a certified copy, the right version and the right register office. A notary becomes useful when you sign UK paperwork in Australia and the UK body asks for one, with a DFAT apostille only where it is requested.

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Not sure whether your UK paperwork needs a notary, a witness or nothing at all? Send us the instructions you were given, and we will explain each step before you book.