The short answer
Every extract from a register entry — yours, your parents’, your grandparents’, your great-grandparents’ — must be issued no earlier than 2 years before the application is filed. The requirement is repeated in the ANC list for each document separately. It turns assembling a file into a planning exercise: documents cannot simply be “stockpiled”.
What the rule covers
| Document | Limitation |
|---|---|
| Extracts of birth, marriage, divorce and death records (yours and your ancestors’) | no earlier than 2 years before filing |
| Multilingual extracts from Convention no. 16 countries | no earlier than 2 years before filing |
| Criminal record certificate | the issuing country sets the term, usually 3–6 months |
Old-format certificates (certificate) |
the document itself may be old — it is submitted as a certified copy |
| Archival certificates about records from the Romanian period | no age limit: these are historical documents |
That last line matters: archival work does not fall under the rule. An entry from a 1929 parish register does not expire. What expires are fresh extracts from registry offices.
How to plan the collection
- Months 1–6: the archives. Requests to archives in Moldova, Ukraine and Romania; confirming the chain. This is the longest and least predictable part — it has to come first.
- In parallel: the language. Preparing for B1 runs independently of the paperwork.
- Months 6–9: fresh extracts. Ordered once the chain is confirmed and it is clear which events have to be covered.
- Month 9: the criminal record certificate — the most perishable paper of all.
- Months 9–10: apostilles and translations, then booking the filing appointment.
In the reverse order (extracts first, archives after), by the time you file some documents are more than two years old and the cycle repeats — with fresh spending on apostilles and translations.
Where people get it wrong
- “I will collect everything in a year and file once I have learned the language.” The language can now be completed after filing, up to 14.03.2027. Holding back a ready file for the sake of the certificate is a sure way to void part of your documents.
- “An extract and a certificate are the same thing.” They are different documents: the certificate was issued at some point in the past, the extract is ordered now. Both are needed.
- “The apostille will refresh the document.” It will not. What counts is the issue date of the extract itself.
- Ordering extracts for the whole family at once “to be safe”. If the archival search shows the basis runs along a different line, half of what you ordered turns out to be useless.
What we take on
We draw up a collection schedule for your situation: what to order now, what three months before filing, and what is not needed at all. We keep validity periods under control so that no document has expired by the filing date. It is the dull part of the work, but it is what most often decides whether you get through in a single attempt.
Frequently asked questions
Are the two years counted to the filing or to the decision? To the filing date. If the case takes three years to review, the documents do not have to be reissued — except where the commission itself asks for fresh ones.
The commission has requested a document — must it be fresh too? Yes, such requests are answered with current documents, and the time to reply is limited — no more than four months from receiving the request, otherwise the application is rejected as unsupported.
What if a document was issued 2 years and 1 month ago? Order it again. Borderline cases do not get through at filing.
Where this comes from
We publish only what we have checked against the primary source. Here it is — open it and see for yourself.