Apostille vs. Embassy legalisation for Romania
An apostille is a single mark fixed to a UK paper by the FCDO Legalisation Office. It tells a foreign desk that the signature or seal on the page is real. Romania takes this one mark on its own, so a longer chain through its embassy is not needed. That single step is what document legalisation for Romania means in practice: one office, one certificate, a paper a Romanian desk can read as genuine.
Some countries want a second seal from their own embassy after the UK one. Romania does not ask for that here, so your paper moves from the Scottish office that issued it, to Milton Keynes, and then straight to Romania. Knowing this early saves a trip through a chain your paper does not need, and it is why the route below has fewer stops than pages for countries outside the Hague Convention.
Romania's Hague status & what it means
Romania joined the Hague Convention in 2001, which is why the single certificate is enough on its own. Before that year a foreign paper needed a chain of marks ending at an embassy desk; after it, one mark from the country where the paper was issued does the same job. For a reader in Edinburgh this means the UK side of the work, arranged through Milton Keynes, is the whole job.
This also shapes what a Romanian desk expects to see. It looks for that certificate itself, not a covering letter from an embassy or a second signature. An apostille from United Kingdom to Romania is a complete, self-contained proof once it is fixed to the page, and nothing further needs adding once your paper leaves the Legalisation Office.
The Edinburgh → Romania route step by step
Start with the paper itself. If it is a Scottish civil record such as a birth, marriage or death entry, Edinburgh Registration Service at City Chambers, 253 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1YP can issue a fresh certified extract. Ordering a new copy this way means your only original stays with you rather than travelling twice through the post.
That extract, or any other UK-issued paper needing the mark, goes next to the FCDO Legalisation Office at PO Box 6255, Milton Keynes MK10 1XX. It works entirely by post; there is no counter in Edinburgh or anywhere else to hand a paper across. Staff check the signature or seal, then fix the certificate and return the paper the same way it arrived.
Once the finished page is back, it is ready to use in Romania as it stands. No further stop, mark or signature is added on the Romanian side, because the apostille issued in Edinburgh for use in Romania already carries everything a receiving desk there needs to see.
Cost & timing for this route
Milton Keynes charges £45 per document by standard post. A registered business sending papers can use a next-day route instead for £40 per document, cheaper as well as quicker — handy if your papers are going out under a company name rather than a personal one.
Standard turnaround runs up to 25 working days, plus postage time each way, so build that into any plan tied to a date in Romania. The faster route, open only to registered businesses, turns a finished page around by the next working day once staff have it, a large gap from the standard pace and useful if your firm qualifies and the date is close.
Destination-specific requirements
What you need for an apostille for Romania is short: a genuine UK paper carrying a real signature or seal, and the standard fee. Romania does not ask the UK side for anything extra beyond that single mark, and no separate Romanian-side form travels with the paper before it lands there.
If your paper is not in Romanian, a receiving desk there may want a translation alongside the certified original; that step sits outside the mark itself and gets arranged separately once the finished page is in hand. Keep the certificate and the source paper together as one set, since a Romanian office will expect to see both.