Marriage Certificate Attestation in Singapore for ROM and ROMM Certificates

Because ROM and ROMM are government registries, SAL treats their marriage certificates as Singapore public documents and legalises the original directly. You skip the notary step, and SAL charges its lower public-document fee.

This is where many couples overpay. Some agencies quote a notarised copy route by default, which adds a notary fee and SAL's S$87.20 authentication fee instead of S$10.70. A notarised copy only makes sense when the receiver specifically accepts a copy and you need to keep the original in Singapore.

What SAL will not accept is the decorative one. SAL states that the ceremonial certificate some couples sign at their solemnisation is not accepted for legalisation. Only the official Certificate of Marriage issued by ROM or ROMM counts.

The prices shown above are starting prices. Your final price depends on the document type, number of pages and destination country, and will be confirmed in a written quotation before any work begins.

The route is the same for both registries: original certificate, SAL, then an embassy where required. The practical differences lie in how each certificate was issued and in what language, so we check the certificate itself rather than assume.

ROM registers civil marriages; ROMM registers marriages where both parties are Muslim. SAL's guidance names both as issuers of marriage certificates that can be submitted for legalisation.

Two checks apply to ROMM certificates in particular. First, SAL requires every document to be in English, or bilingual with English as one of the languages. Look at your certificate and make sure all the entries a foreign office will read appear in English. Second, check whether your certificate is paper or digital. ROM began issuing digital certificates for applications made from 25 September 2023, and ROMM has issued digital marriage certificates since 1 July 2024. SAL applies an extra rule to digital documents that are not in English: it needs a physical endorsement from the issuing agency on every page.

If anything on your certificate is handwritten, faded or partly in another script, send us a photo before booking. It takes minutes to check and avoids a wasted SAL fee.

A scan or phone photo of your old paper certificate is not a "digital certificate" and SAL cannot legalise it. If you married before digital issuance began and no longer have the original, ask ROM for a digital duplicate or extract, then print it for SAL.

Couples often confuse two things here. A true digital certificate is issued by the registry itself and can be verified. A PDF you created by scanning your 2018 certificate is just a picture of a document, with no way for SAL to confirm it.

ROM lists a fee of S$50 for a duplicate or extract of a marriage certificate, issued as a digital copy, at the time of writing. Once you have it:

• Print every page in full, including headers, footers, page numbers and borders, as SAL asks
• Make sure the QR code prints clearly and scans; SAL cannot apostille a document whose QR code fails
• Print one copy per country if you need several; each printout is legalised separately
• Do not add stamps, notes or staples from anyone else, which SAL treats as alterations

If your verification needs a Singpass login, SAL asks you to attend its counter yourself. Otherwise we can submit on your behalf.

SAL cannot put an apostille on a laminated certificate. You have two ways forward: have SAL photocopy the laminated original and legalise the photocopy, or order a fresh duplicate or extract from ROM and legalise that instead.

The photocopy route is cheaper (SAL adds S$1.07 for the copy at the time of writing) but it only works if your receiver accepts a legalised photocopy. Gulf embassies and family-visa offices can be strict about this, so we usually suggest the ROM duplicate for spouse visas and keep the photocopy route for receivers who have confirmed it in writing.

Please do not try to peel lamination off. A damaged certificate creates a second problem without solving the first.

For a UAE or Qatar spouse visa, your marriage certificate goes to SAL and then to that country's embassy in Singapore; the final MOFA step happens after arrival. Saudi Arabia has applied the Apostille Convention since December 2022, so an SAL apostille is normally enough there.

In practice, the spouse visa file rarely stops at the marriage certificate. Gulf sponsors usually file children's birth certificates at the same time, and it is cheaper to legalise the full set in one trip to the embassy. Our birth certificate attestation page covers the children's documents.

The prices shown above are starting prices. Your final price depends on the document type, number of pages and destination country, and will be confirmed in a written quotation before any work begins.

The general embassy chain for these countries is on our embassy attestation page. Not married yet and need to prove you are single first? See our single status documents page.

Arabic translation is often requested for Gulf family files. Whether the translation is done before or after the embassy stamp depends on the receiver; our translation attestation service sets the order.

Process and timing

1. You send a photo of the certificate and the visa checklist (same or next working day review).
2. We collect the original or your printout from your home or office.
3. We submit to SAL, where documents are usually processed on the spot at the counter.
4. For non-Hague countries, we submit to the embassy; its processing time is set by the embassy.
5. We return the set to you by hand or courier, usually 1–2 working days after completion.

Pricing structure

The prices shown above are starting prices. Your final price depends on the document type, number of pages and destination country, and will be confirmed in a written quotation before any work begins.

Overseas offices compare the names on your marriage certificate with the names in your passport, visa application and any other document in the file. If a surname changed after marriage, the marriage certificate is usually the link, but a mismatch elsewhere can still stop the file.

Typical problems we see: a passport renewed in a married name while the degree remains in the maiden name; a transliterated name spelled differently across documents; a middle name dropped on one certificate. Where the marriage certificate alone does not bridge the gap, a statutory declaration stating that the names refer to one and the same person is the usual remedy, signed before our notary. Our declaration and affidavit page explains it.

Check the spelling on your certificate against your passport before you pay for any legalisation. Correcting a ROM record is a separate process with its own fee.