Know Your Rights A: Authenticating documents

Know Your Rights A: Authenticating documents

Question 

We are a family planning to move from Ireland to live in Italy. Will Italian authorities accept our Irish birth certificates?

Answer

When you are abroad, you may need to use Irish documents, for example, a birth certificate, either for personal or business reasons. Governments and organisations sometimes require that public documents issued in other countries be authenticated or apostilled and translated before they can be accepted. Authenticating a document means verifying that a signature, seal or stamp on a document is genuine. An apostille stamp is an international certification.

Since 16 February 2019, EU citizens moving to another EU country no longer need to get an apostille stamp to prove that their public documents are authentic. This means that public documents such as birth, death, marriage and civil partnership certificates issued in Ireland by the General Register Office (GRO) and the Certificate of Freedom to Marry issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are accepted by authorities in other EU member states as authentic.

The EU Regulation also removes the obligation for citizens to provide a translation of their public document. If the public document is not in one of the official languages of the EU country requesting the document, citizens can ask for a Multilingual Standard Form, available in all EU languages, from the authorities of the EU country which issued the public document. Multilingual Standard Forms are now available on request from the GRO for birth, death, marriage, adoption and civil partnership certificates. For more information, visit gro.ie.  

Further information is available from the Citizens Information Service below.

Know Your Rights has been compiled by South Connacht Citizens Information Service CLG, which provides a free and confidential service to the public. 

Tel: 0761 07 6330 Address: Boyle CIC, Elphin Street, Boyle, Co. RoscommonInformation is also available online at citizensinformation.ie and from the Citizens Information Phone Service, 0761 07 4000.