The aile cüzdanı, the Turkish family record book, is a familiar proof of a marriage in Türkiye, and its cover carries the word “international”. That word can lead a holder to expect the booklet to pass in every country as it is; it is carried to Germany with no apostille and no translation, and the Standesamt or the Ausländerbehörde, the foreigners’ office, does not accept it. This page explains why the word misleads, which convention Germany has stayed out of, and which document completes the file instead. The general rule on the family record book is on its document page of this site; here only the refusal is covered.
Family record book not recognised in Germany
Under the German missions’ page the booklet is recognised in Germany only with an apostille and a German translation, so a booklet presented without both does not meet the requirement. The same booklet may be received differently in France, Austria or Italy, since the refusal follows from Germany’s own accession record; other countries’ practice is not described on this page.
Two CIEC conventions, one accession missing
The page of the German missions in Türkiye gives the reason in a single paragraph. The CIEC convention of 13 September 1974 has applied to Türkiye since 1984, and international family record books are issued under it. Germany has so far not acceded to that convention, which is why the family record book is recognised in Germany only with an apostille and a translation by a sworn translator. The confusion arises because Germany has acceded to the 1976 convention on multilingual extracts (CIEC 16): Formula A, B and C pass in Germany without apostille or translation, the family record book does not. Both documents are “international” and “multilingual”; what makes the difference is the name of the convention, not of the document.
Which Turkish authority apostilles the booklet
The family record book is an administrative document issued by the civil registry administration; its apostille comes from the authorities listed for administrative documents on the HCCH page for Türkiye, the valilik or kaymakamlık, the provincial or district governor’s office. The family record book is not among the six document types of e-Apostil, the official Turkish electronic system; this site’s survey found no electronic route for it. Whether the certificate goes on the booklet itself or on a certified copy was not verified in this site’s survey; the office is asked in advance, and the institution is asked which pages it wants translated. No fee is charged for the apostille at governor’s offices, and according to the Ankara standard the procedure takes about ten minutes.
Two documents that can stand in for the booklet
Where what the institution wants is the existence and date of the marriage, the family record book is not the only proof of that. The first alternative is Formula B, the multilingual marriage extract: as a CIEC 16 document it needs neither apostille nor translation in Germany, and it is obtained from the civil registry directorate. The second is the civil registry extract, which for Germany needs an apostille and a sworn translation. The family record book itself is apostilled and translated only where the institution specifically asks for it. On a returned file the institution is first asked which document it accepts; whether a given registry office is satisfied with Formula B is its own decision, and this site’s survey found no official sentence generalising it.
Open questions on the family record book file
The current list of states that have acceded to the 1974 convention could not be read from the convention’s own table in this site’s survey; the statement that Germany has not acceded comes from the German missions’ page. How countries other than Germany treat the family record book was not verified country by country. Where the booklet records several children or an earlier marriage, which pages the institution wants also varies. Everything not written on this page is a question to put to the institution before travelling.
Printed headings are not a translation of the booklet
If the family record book is to be apostilled, the translation is made after the apostille and from the whole booklet: the printed multilingual headings do not count as a translation, and every handwritten or typed entry together with the apostille certificate is rendered into German by a yeminli tercüman, a sworn translator whose oath is on record at a Turkish notary. The translation is certified by the notary; if the institution wants an apostille on the translation as well, the apostille on that notarial act is issued by the governor or district governor of any province. Where the file is completed with Formula B, no translation link opens at all. Whether a translation made in Türkiye is treated by German authorities as a sworn translation could not be verified; that uncertainty has its own page in this section.