Notarising Immigration Documents for a United Kingdom Visa Application from Australia

Last reviewed: 26 September 2026. UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) changes its fees, thresholds and forms often. The guidance on GOV.UK for your route is the only reliable source.

Most Australians applying for a UK visa do not need a notary, an apostille or any certified copy. UKVI's own guidance goes further than silence. In its guide to supporting documents for visitors, it lists notarial certificates among the kinds of evidence it finds less useful. Paying for one can mean paying for something the decision-maker gives little weight to.

What UKVI does care about is getting the right original document, a translation in the form it specifies, and, for some jobs, the right police certificate. This page covers those, route by route.

Short visits: the ETA

Australians visiting the UK usually need an Electronic Travel Authorisation rather than a visa. The application asks for a passport, a photo and an email address. No supporting document is notarised, certified or uploaded. If someone offers to "certify your documents for the UK ETA", there is nothing to certify.

What UKVI wants instead of notarisation

Originals, or good images of them. UKVI generally wants the document itself, or a clear photo or scan of the original uploaded through the application. A notarised photocopy is a copy of a copy, and it does not add the one thing UKVI is checking: whether the original is genuine and says what you claim.

Translations in UKVI's form. A document not in English (or Welsh) needs a translation. GOV.UK says the translation must include the translator's confirmation that it is accurate, the date, the translator's full name and signature, and their contact details. For some applications made in the UK, such as settlement, the family rules also ask for certification by a qualified translator and details of the translator's credentials. None of this requires a notary. It is the translator who confirms the translation, not a witness to their signature.

For Australian applicants, this usually comes up only for documents issued elsewhere, such as a marriage certificate from a non-English-speaking country.

By route

Youth Mobility Scheme

Australians within the scheme's age range can live and work in the UK for a limited period. The key document is evidence of savings, held for a continuous period before you apply. GOV.UK sets out the amount, the holding period and how recent the evidence must be. A bank statement or letter from your bank meets it. A notary adds nothing.

UK Ancestry visa

This is the route where documents matter most, and where people most often over-prepare. You prove a chain: your birth, your parent's birth, and your grandparent's birth in the UK (or the other places the rules allow). GOV.UK asks for full birth certificates for you, and for the parent and grandparent your claim is based on, plus marriage certificates or change-of-name documents where names changed along the way.

What this means in practice:

• Your and your parent's Australian birth certificates come from the state or territory registry. Order the standard registry certificate, not a commemorative certificate. If your parent's name changed on marriage, include the marriage certificate that explains it.
• Your grandparent's UK birth certificate is a UK document, ordered from the UK registration service for the part of the UK where they were born. An Australian notary has no role in it.
• No apostilles. The Ancestry guidance does not ask for Australian certificates to be apostilled or notarised.

The chain is where applications go wrong: a missing marriage certificate that explains a surname change, or a grandparent's certificate for the wrong person. Get the chain right before worrying about certification.

Partner and spouse visas

UKVI asks for evidence of the relationship, such as a marriage certificate, and evidence of living together. An Australian marriage certificate is submitted as it is. If you married overseas, the certificate comes from that country, and the UK rules deal with overseas marriages on their own terms.

Skilled Worker: the police certificate trap

If you apply from outside the UK for certain jobs, including roles in education, health and social care, UKVI requires a criminal record certificate from each country you have lived in for a set period. For Australia, that is a National Police Check from the Australian Federal Police.

Check the current Skilled Worker guidance for which occupations are covered and how the residence period is counted. Then order the AFP check. A state police check is not the same document. Neither needs a notary for UKVI.

Where an Australian notary might still fit

UK visa applications rarely need one. UK transactions often do: selling or buying property, dealing with an estate, acting as a director of a UK company, or signing documents for a UK court. Those are covered on the separate page on what the United Kingdom requires. If a UK solicitor, bank or registry asks you for a notarised document, that request is real. It is simply not coming from UKVI.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to get my birth certificate apostilled for a UK Ancestry visa? The GOV.UK guidance for the route does not ask for it. Submit the full registry certificate.

Should I get my bank statements notarised for the Youth Mobility Scheme? No. UKVI asks for bank evidence meeting its own conditions. Notarisation is not one of them.

My police check is from a state police force. Is that enough for a Skilled Worker application? UKVI's guidance for Australia refers to the national check. Order the AFP National Police Check rather than relying on a state check.

Can a Justice of the Peace certify copies for my UK visa? UKVI does not generally ask for certified copies, so the question rarely arises.