Birth and Marriage Certificates

Apostille Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates in South Africa for use in the United Arab Emirates and abroad

Apostille South African Birth death marriage certificates
We obtain and authenticate vault and unabridged Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates issued in South Africa with Apostille stamps from DIRCO and the High Court for presentation to authorities abroad.

DIRCO Apostilles are available in 5 - 10 working days

High Court Apostilles are available in 3 - 4 business days

There are two methods of obtaining an Apostille in South Africa on a birth, death or marriage certificate.

1. Apostille from DIRCO
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) will apply Apostille stamps to original unabridged birth and marriage certificates issued by the South African Department of Home Affairs (DHA).

Apostilles from DIRCO take 5 - 10 working days (urgent service) or 4 - 8 weeks (non-urgent).

Abridged certificates cannot be apostilled by DIRCO.

DIRCO will only issue an Apostille if the signature of the official who signed the certificate can be found in its database. Older certificates may not result in a match, in which case DIRCO will not issue an Apostille.

2. Apostille from High Court
An Apostille from the High Court is quicker and is applied to a notarized true copy of the South African certificate. This can often be done from a good quality scan and a short video of the document. High court Apostilles can also be applied to certificates that DIRCO will not accept, including older certificates and vault copies. High Court Apostilles can be completed in 3 - 4 business days

However, a High Court Apostille authenticates the signature of the South African notary and not the signature of the official who originally issued the certificate, so it may not be accepted by all countries and for all purposes.

How to obtain South African Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates

Isarey can obtain unabridged and vault certificates for clients requiring apostilles, directly from the DHA in South Africa. We offer standard and priority services to obtain unabridged certificates (10 - 20 business days) and we can normally obtain vault certificates in around 8 weeks (provided that the DHA has no difficulties in locating the original record in its vaults).

By making the application directly to the DHA in Pretoria, we can save weeks of waiting, ensure application forms are completed and submitted correctly, and we can usually fast-track corrections in case there are any errors in the issued certificates. Applications made from abroad through South African embassies can take 6 - 12 months or more to complete, then if certificates are issued with errors or spelling mistakes (not uncommon, since new certificates are typed out individually), a new application is required.

We only need scans of the application form and ID to make the application, so no physical documents need to be sent to South Africa.
Please contact us for further information and application forms.

Certified translations of South African death, marriage and birth certificates

When presenting South African marriage, death and birth certificates in countries which do not have English as an official language, then a certified translation may be required. The certified translation must meet the requirements of the destination country, so that a translation done locally in South Africa may require additional certification through an apostille stamp. Alternatively, translations can be done and certified in the recipient country.

Isarey works with local notaries and sworn translators in a wide range of destination countries. We'll take care of the entire legalization and translation process, so that your certificates are correctly translated and ready to submit:

  • GERMANY: translations into German must be certified by an officially authorized and appointed sworn translator.
  • SPAIN: translator must be authorised by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign AffairsExternal link (opens in new tab) (in Spanish) ("Traducción Jurada")
  • FRANCE: translations into French must be certified by a translator accredited by a French court of appeal (Cour d'appel)
  • ITALY: translations must be authenticated by a Court Clerk or by a Notary Public in Italy
  • PORTUGAL: translations into Portuguese can be certified in Portugal by a local notary

For further information about our South African apostille service and about legalizing birth, death and marriage certificates issued in South Africa for use in the United Arab Emirates and abroad, use our online quotation form or send us an email us. We will get back to you directly with a quotation and details of how to proceed:

Get a Quotation for your Documents

We price each certification process individually, depending on the type and quantity of documents to be attested, the country of issue, the country of use and intended purpose, urgency, whether certified translations are required as part of the process and courier costs.

To receive a quote, you can upload your documents using our online quotation form or send us your documents by email. After reviewing your documents and requirements, we will get back to you with a quotation:

If you don’t have the documents available, just describe the documents you need to certify, and we will get back to you with an estimation of cost and delivery times.

Using our quotation form, your documents will be uploaded over a secure connection and immediately encrypted on our server. For added protection, you can upload password-protected files (PDFExternal link (opens in new tab), Microsoft Office 365: Save a password protected document to prevent unauthorized people from opening it. Office DocumentsExternal link (opens in new tab), WinRAR Encryption Frequently asked question (FAQ) RAR foldersExternal link (opens in new tab)) and provide us with the passwords separately.

PERSONAL DATA: If your documents contain personal data belonging to people outside your household, please ensure that you are authorised to share this data before uploading your documents. If your documents contain sensitive personal data, such as biometric data, medical data or data on criminal convictions, please ensure that you indicate this when prompted, upon submitting your documents. For further information on our processing of personal data contained in uploaded documents, please see:
Privacy Policy (Customer Inquiries)

For further information on confidentiality in our handling of document content please see:
Confidentiality (Client Content)

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