For Canadian Citizens looking to get married in Cuba they should be aware that the Apostille Convention came into effect on Jan 11th 2024.
Authentication of your paperwork for marriage in Cuba is required before you can use the documents in Cuba.
What Are The Changes To The Authentication Process?
The changes with the signing up to the Apostille Convention by Canada apply to the way the authentication of your paperwork for marriage in Cuba is processed in 3 ways:
Canada will begin to issue Apostille Certificates instead of Authentication Stamps.
For some provinces, the jurisdictions have been designated as 'competent authorities' who will now authenticate the documents issued or notarized in their jurisdictions. (Previously Global Affairs authenticated all provinces documents before they were sent on to the Cuban Embassy to be legalized).
Global Affairs will no longer authenticate documents that were issued or notarized in a jurisdiction that is designated a ' competent authority'.
Which Provinces Have Been Established As Competent Authorities?
Provinces where Competent Authorities have been established are:
Alberta
Ontario
Saskatchewan
For these provinces you must send your documents to the competent authority regardless of where the document was issued.
And Competent Authorities have also been established in:
British Columbia, and
Quebec
For these provinces the competent authority can only authenticate a notarized document if the original document was issued in the province.
To note Global Affairs will return documents issued or notarized in these provinces to applicants without being authenticated which will cause a major delay in the processing of your paperwork, so it is an important part of the legalization system to ensure the accurate processing of all your documents is completed in the time that is left on your Single Status Afficavit.
You can find out more about the changes on the IRCC website here
At How To Get Married In Cuba we understand the complexities for Canadians and Americans in legalizing their paperwork so if you would like peace of mind by a trusted company that cares about this very important milestone in your life then please do contact us to help with the process.
We look forward to working with you!