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I'm a British citizen and my wife is from the Philippines. We live in Spain and she has an Article 10 residence card with 'Family Member of an EU Citizen'. We'd like to visit the UK in July and she should be able to enter visa-free with her residence card as she'll be travelling with me.

The Gov.uk advice page says that we'll need to bring our marriage certificate as evidence of her right of admission. Our marriage certificate is from the Philippines (in English) and has been authenticated by the Department of Foreign Affairs in Philippines and legalized by the Spanish consulate in Manila. It's dated in August last year.

I haven't been able to find any information about any requirements for the marriage certificate. We had trouble getting the Spanish government to recognise our marriage certificate when applying for my wife's entry visa + residence card (lots of crazy requirements like it not being allowed to be more than three months old) so I'm worried that UK border control will try to impose similar requirements when trying to enter visa-free.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of this? Is it possible that border control won't accept a foreign marriage certificate as evidence and won't allow my wife to enter visa-free?

Crazydre
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AdamLazaruso
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2 Answers2

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Called the Border Force at Heathrow terminal 5 (+44 20 8196 2500) and asked about this.

Any official marriage certificate in English or Welsh will be accepted, and there's no restriction for old certificates (e.g. for long-time couples).

For general reference, it is highly recommended, but not formally required, to legalise marriage certificates not issued by an EU/EFTA state, as well as any translations of documents not in English or Welsh (translations are mandatory, but do not strictly have to be legalised).

That said, contrary to what people here seem to think, you usually don't have to present your marriage certificate (the passport and article 10 card being sufficient), only if the officers get a reason to doubt that the Article 10 card was issued on the basis of you.

So in essence, your wife will be fine.

Crazydre
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I just wanted to come back to this months later and say how it went for anyone who might have stumbled on this looking for info. They didn't actually ask to see our marriage certificate at all. They looked at the passport and residence card (as Coke said) and issued a visa for six months.

AdamLazaruso
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