evidence: If you anticipate that you will seek recognition of your foreign divorce in the United States or another country, you may need certified, authenticated, and/or translated copies of your foreign marriage certificates and/or divorce decrees. You may also need information on foreign laws concerning divorce, which may be available from the foreign attorney who handled the divorce. These are likely easiest to obtain at the time of the divorce. Copies of foreign marriage and divorce certificates may be obtained directly from the civil registrar or court in the foreign country where the marriage or divorce occurred. Contact the embassy or consulate of the foreign country in the United States for guidance on how to obtain copies of foreign public documents. Foreign embassies may require written requests in their language. Enclose copies of pertinent documents and any required fees in the form of an international money order. In some cases, an authenticated copy of a marriage or divorce certificate will be required when you need to use a legal document from one country in another country. An authenticated document is one that a government authority has certified as genuine. In the case of a foreign document, authentication happens either by obtaining an apostille (in countries party to the Hague Legalization Convention) or by having the document authenticated by the local U.S. embassy or consulate. This is not a form a registration, but simply the placing of the seal of the U.S. embassy or consulate over the seal of the foreign court. See travel.state.gov for a detailed discussion of the authentication process. For country specific information, see the U.S. Citizens Services section of the relevant U.S. Embassy website.