Singapore Marriage Certificate Apostille

ROM and ROMM certificates SAL apostilles directly

Both types of Singapore marriage certificate are issued by government registries:

• ROM (Registry of Marriages) registers civil marriages under the Women's Charter.
• ROMM (Registry of Muslim Marriages) registers Muslim marriages under the Administration of Muslim Law Act.

SAL can confirm either certificate came from the registry, so it attaches the apostille directly. You do not need a lawyer's letter, a notarial certificate or a stamp from any other office. In fact, extra stamps can cause a rejection: SAL treats marks from anyone other than the issuing registry as alterations.

SAL will also turn a certificate away if it is:

• laminated (a very common problem with older ROM certificates kept in plastic);
• faded or hard to read, especially typed or handwritten certificates from past decades;
• altered, for example with corrections not made by ROM.

If your certificate falls into any of these groups, order a duplicate or extract from ROM instead of trying your luck at the counter. For marriages registered on or after 15 September 1961, that is done through the e-Services on the Our Marriage Journey portal or at ROM's self-help kiosks at 7 Canning Rise; the fee is SGD 50 and the copy arrives digitally. Records of civil marriages before that date are requested through the National Archives of Singapore.

Digital marriage certificates and printouts

ROM has issued digital certificates of marriage, sent by email after the ceremony, for couples who submitted their marriage application on or after 25 September 2023. The government announced that ROMM would follow in 2024; whichever format your ROMM certificate takes, SAL applies the same rules. Couples may still sign a "ceremonial" certificate as a keepsake, but that keepsake is not the legal record and should not be sent for an apostille.

For a digital marriage certificate, SAL wants a paper printout that matches the digital file exactly and a QR code that verifies when scanned. You can print as many copies as you like, so ordering two or three apostilled sets costs only the per-copy price for each extra set. The general rules for printing digital certificates are explained in our digital certificate apostille guide.

ROM also points out that overseas authorities can verify a digital marriage extract by scanning its QR code. Some receiving offices therefore accept the digital certificate without an apostille. Ask the receiving office first; if they insist on legalisation, the apostille route above applies.

Spouse visas and registering your marriage abroad

An apostilled marriage certificate is typically requested for:

• Spouse and dependant visas, when one spouse is moving abroad for work and the other follows.
• Registering the marriage in the spouse's home country, such as a household register in China, the family relationship register in Korea, or the civil registry in Spain.
• Changing a surname or marital status on a foreign passport or national ID.
• Children's documents, where a foreign authority needs proof that the parents are married before registering a birth.

Whether the apostille is enough depends on the country. For China, Korea, Japan, India, Spain and Vietnam (from 11 September 2026), the SAL apostille is the only authentication step; no embassy stage is added. Thailand needs Royal Thai Embassy legalisation on top until 28 February 2027, and Malaysia and the UAE always need an embassy or high commission step. Country details are on our embassy legalisation service page, and you can check any destination on the apostille countries list.

For Korea, for example, a Korean spouse usually reports the Singapore marriage to the Korean authorities, and a translation into Korean is expected. Our apostille for South Korea page covers that in more detail.

Translating your marriage certificate

Singapore marriage certificates are in English. Where the receiving country needs its own language, a translation is prepared after the apostille so that both the certificate and the apostille are translated.

There are two ways to do this:

1. 1Translation made in Singapore and legalised here. The translator signs a declaration before a notary public, then SAL authenticates the notarised translation for SGD 87.20.
2. 2Translation made in the destination country. Some countries (Spain, for example, with its sworn translators) prefer a translation made locally. In that case you only need the apostilled English certificate from us.

Ask the receiving office which it prefers before paying for a translation. When we prepare one, both spouses' names are checked against their passports before notarisation, because a single misspelt surname means redoing the whole set.

Marriage certificate apostille price and time

Time: a clean certificate is usually apostilled within 1–2 working days of reaching us, as SAL processes over the counter. A ROM duplicate is usually emailed by the next working day, or in 3 to 5 working days if ROM has to retrieve an older record first. If your flight or visa appointment is close, ask about our same-day apostille service. For all combinations, see apostille price.