Certified translation › Certificate of no impediment
Certificate of no impediment translation costs £45 per document and is certified by a sworn, court-authorised German translator. A foreign registrar — or a German Standesamt for a wedding here — needs your Ehefähigkeitszeugnis or certificate of capacity to marry in full, names matched to your passport. Any apostille is issued by the authority in the document's country of origin, not by us; this guide explains the order to obtain it. Fixed price includes certification and shipping.
Court-authorised translators · certificate of no impediment vs certificate of capacity to marry (§ 1309 BGB) explained · exemption route named for countries that issue neither · apostille route named · price includes postage
For a marriage abroad: almost always yes. The authority at your destination generally requires a certified (Germany, Austria) or notarised (Switzerland) translation of your certificate of no impediment or certificate of capacity to marry, often together with an apostille. Which document you need, and who issues it, differs by country — see the comparison below.
The first question to settle, though, is what your own country issues. Ireland, the United Kingdom and Australia issue a certificate of no impediment or letter of freedom; the United States issues none, and Canada only a statement in lieu — in those cases the route generally runs via an exemption (Befreiung) from the president of the Oberlandesgericht under § 1309 BGB, and the Standesamt tells you which sworn declaration it will accept alongside it. That decides everything that follows.
If a UK-issued certificate is what your Standesamt wants, ask your local register office what it will issue and on what basis before you order anything — the practice is set locally. Where no usable certificate is available, the route is the exemption (Befreiung) from the president of the Oberlandesgericht under § 1309 BGB described above, and the Standesamt tells you which sworn declaration it will accept alongside it.
It is nearly always a marriage with a foreign element — either abroad itself, or with a foreign partner in Germany.
The certificate of no impediment usually comes from the residents' registration register (Bürgeramt); the certificate of capacity to marry is issued by the German Standesamt (registry office). Both are requested by the authority in your country of marriage. For use there, an apostille is frequently also required.
That apostille is issued neither by termbase nor — since this is not a court document — by the President of the Regional Court, but by the competent regional authority (Bezirksregierung, Regierungspräsidium or Landesamt; in Berlin the LABO). Sensible order: apostille on the original first, then the certified translation, which carries the apostille wording over as well.
Once your local Register Office issues the Certificate of No Impediment, it needs an apostille from the FCDO Legalisation Office before a certified translation — since Brexit, EU Regulation 2016/1191 no longer exempts it for Germany or Austria. The standard service is £45 plus courier or postage and usually takes up to 25 working days. For Switzerland an apostille was always required, regardless of Brexit. termbase issues no apostilles but tells you which UK and German offices to contact, in order.
United Kingdom
What a UK register office will issue towards a marriage abroad, and on what basis, is set locally rather than by one national rule, so start there and ask before you order anything. Where no usable UK certificate is forthcoming, the German route is the exemption (Befreiung) from the president of the Oberlandesgericht under § 1309 BGB, and your Standesamt tells you which sworn declaration it will accept alongside it. We translate whichever set you end up with.
Since Brexit, Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 — which lets civil-status documents move between EU member states without an apostille — no longer covers UK documents for Germany or Austria. For Switzerland this is not a Brexit change at all: Switzerland was never inside that EU exemption. Where the receiving office does want the original authenticated, the UK body that issues the apostille is the FCDO Legalisation Office. gov.uk gives the standard service as “£45, plus courier or postage costs” and “usually up to 25 working days, plus courier or postage time”. termbase issues no apostilles — we tell you whether you need one and translate the document and the apostille together once you have both.
With a certificate of no impediment, precision of terminology and law decides whether it is accepted abroad. The most common causes — and how we solve them.
| Pitfall | Why it matters | How termbase solves it |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong document chosen | Bringing a certificate of no impediment when the destination country requires a certificate of capacity to marry means starting over. | We clarify in advance exactly which document the authority in your marriage country requires. |
| "Single" rendered imprecisely | Marital-status categories carry legal weight; an imprecise word changes the statement. | Marital status is rendered in legally sound terms and, where needed, with an explanatory note. |
| Name ≠ passport spelling | If the transliteration diverges from your passport, the foreign authority questions your identity. | We match the passport exactly; for non-Latin scripts, ISO-standard transliteration, both forms documented. |
| Apostille "ordered" from the translator | Only the competent regional authority issues the apostille; without it, the foreign authority refuses the document. | We do not issue apostilles, but we name the correct authority and order — then translate the apostille together with the certificate. |
| Date of issue too old | Certificates of capacity to marry are often valid for a limited time only; an old one is not accepted. | We flag validity periods and recommend a fresh document before translation where needed. |
| Multilingual certificate overlooked | A multilingual certificate of capacity to marry (Munich Convention 1980) often makes the translation unnecessary. | We check whether a multilingual certificate is an option, and translate only where genuinely needed. |
| UK Register Office certificate assumed apostille-free | A UK applicant expects the pre-2021 exemption still applies and submits the Certificate of No Impediment without the now-mandatory FCDO apostille. | We flag the FCDO Legalisation Office step before the certificate is translated. |
| Germany | Austria | Switzerland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Issued by | Certificate of no impediment — residents’ registration office (Bürgeramt); certificate of capacity to marry — the German Standesamt | Certificate of free status — extract from the Zentrales Personenstandsregister; certificate of no impediment to marriage — the Austrian Standesamt | Both issued by the Zivilstandsamt (civil registry office) |
| Certified by | Court-authorised translator (ermächtigter Übersetzer) | Court-sworn translator (allgemein beeideter und gerichtlich zertifizierter Dolmetscher) | A translator signs to certify accuracy; a Swiss notary then certifies that signature |
| Legal basis | § 1309 BGB (the certificate) · § 142 (3) ZPO (the translation) | § 14 SDG (translation) · Austrian civil-status law | Cantonal notarial practice |
| Apostille | Issued by the competent regional authority (Bezirksregierung, Regierungspräsidium or Landesamt; LABO in Berlin) — not the Regional Court president, since this is not a court document | Issued by the Amt der Landesregierung of the relevant federal state — not a Landesgericht president | Issued by the cantonal Staatskanzlei (or the Bundeskanzlei for a document of federal origin) |
Confirm with your destination registrar which document it actually wants before you order — the certificate of no impediment and the certificate of capacity to marry are not interchangeable.
Certificate of no impediment or certificate of capacity to marry, with or without apostille, single- or multilingual — the authority in your marriage country decides. That is why we clarify this before the order, so the translation is right first time.
The wrong document can cost you your wedding date.
That's why we clarify first: certificate of no impediment, or certificate of capacity to marry under § 1309 BGB.
Typical cases
Marrying abroad, marrying a foreign partner, or a multilingual certificate — the case determines the document and its form.
Marriage abroad
Foreign partner
Standard route
How it works
You upload a clearly legible scan and tell us your country of marriage. We clarify whether a certificate of no impediment or a certificate of capacity to marry is required, review the language pair, and name a binding fixed price. Once approved, a court-authorised translator produces the certified translation, seal and certification note included.
You receive the result in advance as a PDF, followed by the certified original by post. On request we clarify the order of steps and whether an apostille is needed beforehand, so nothing has to be repeated.
A certificate of no impediment and a certificate of capacity to marry are short documents, usually billed as a flat fee per document. We name a binding fixed price after a brief review — certification, an advance PDF and postal delivery included.
| Certified translation by a court-authorised translator | ✓included |
| Certification note, stamp & signature | ✓included |
| Advance PDF for review | ✓included |
| Postal delivery of the certified original | ✓included |
| Quality assurance & final check | ✓included |
Standard certificates are usually a flat fixed fee; longer documents from £0.75 per standard line. We name the exact amount after a brief review. How the price is made up →
Common occasions for this translation: Getting married in Germany · birth certificate translation. There you will find the full document package with procedure and deadlines.
Sources
Every legal statement on this page is backed by a primary source. Acceptance in your specific case is always decided by the requesting authority.
FAQ
Nobody at home could give me a paper the German registrar would accept as a certificate of no impediment, so the case went to the president of the higher regional court for an exemption. We could not file that ourselves — the registrar has to record it — and every document had to be an original with a translation from a translator authorised in Germany. termbase knew that split and prepared the set for it.
Adebayo Ogundimu · civil engineer, Lagos (Nigeria) · exemption procedure → registry office
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