Apostille & Document Legalization for the United Kingdom — from Canada

Three groups drive most of our UK work. First, employers and professional regulators: Canadians taking up jobs in the UK are often asked for an apostilled RCMP criminal record check, and regulated professions — health care, teaching, finance — frequently want apostilled degrees and credentials. Second, universities and registrars: admissions offices and local register offices ask for apostilled birth certificates, transcripts, or proof of name change. Third, family history: Canadians assembling UK ancestry paperwork need their Canadian civil records apostilled before UK bodies will rely on them.

In each case the UK institution defines what it wants; Visa Jet's job is to produce exactly that — the right document, in the right form, with the apostille attached.

The United Kingdom is a longstanding member of the Apostille Convention, and Canada joined on 11 January 2024. That means Canadian public documents bound for the UK need one certification: an apostille issued by the province's designated authority for provincial and notarized documents, or by Global Affairs Canada for federal documents like RCMP certificates. There is no British High Commission legalization step.

Older guidance floating around the internet still describes the pre-2024 authentication-and-legalization route — following it wastes weeks. We apply the current process and confirm with you which Canadian office must issue the apostille for each specific document.

Requests vary by institution, but Canadian clients preparing files for the UK most often need:

A rule that saves clients time: each country apostilles its own documents. A UK birth certificate, DBS check, or degree cannot be apostilled in Canada — UK documents are apostilled by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) in the United Kingdom. If your file combines Canadian and British records, we prepare and apostille the Canadian side and point you to the FCDO route for the British side.

Translation is almost never required in this corridor. Where a French-language Quebec document is queried by a UK office, we can arrange certified English translation, but for most files the apostilled original is all that is needed.

Canadian citizens do not need a visitor visa for short stays in the UK — they travel under the UK's Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), a simple online step completed before flying. Longer stays for work or study run through the UK's points-based system, where the supporting documents we prepare — apostilled checks, degrees, civil records — become part of the file an applicant or sponsor assembles.

Permanent residents of Canada and other foreign nationals living here may need a full UK visitor visa depending on nationality. Visa Jet assists with preparing and organizing those applications, with decisions resting entirely with UK Visas and Immigration.

Our UK service is fully remote: scan and email us the request, and we take it from there — retrieving certificates where needed, arranging notarization, obtaining the apostille from the correct authority, and couriering the package to you or directly to a UK address. Clients in every province use the same process.

Start by writing to info@visajet.ca or calling +1 819-635-8787. We will confirm what the UK institution actually requires and set out the steps plainly, without promising what only government offices control.