A public filing, not a private paper
A memorandum and articles of association differs from a set of bylaws or a board resolution in one important way: it is filed at Companies House when a company incorporates, so it sits on the public record rather than staying inside the business. Anyone can order a certified copy of it, not just the company itself. That single difference changes the first step of the whole apostille process. There is no drafting, no signing, and no internal certification to arrange before this document can move forward.
Nottingham Register Office, on Old Market Square, holds birth, marriage and death entries for the city and has no filing role for companies at all. The certified copy needed here comes from Companies House instead, which keeps the incorporation document on file for as long as the company exists. Where a company incorporated makes no difference either; Companies House holds one register that covers the whole country, not separate desks for each city.
From Companies House to the apostille
Once a certified copy is in hand, the city where the company sits stops mattering. Nottingham feeds into the same national system as any other city, and the FCDO Legalisation Office is the single authority that applies the apostille, wherever the company was registered. A company trading from Nottingham and one trading from any other city post their certified copy to the identical address.
Because Companies House already certifies its own copies, there is usually no separate solicitor's certification step here, unlike a set of bylaws the company wrote for itself. The Companies House copy travels straight on to Milton Keynes once it arrives. That makes the process shorter by one step than most other company documents on this site.
Cost and turnaround
The FCDO charges £45 per document for the standard postal apostille, or £40 per document through the faster next-day route reserved for registered businesses. That figure sits apart from whatever Companies House charges for issuing the certified copy in the first place. Two separate fees, from two separate bodies, make up the total cost of this apostille.
Standard turnaround is up to 25 working days, plus the time the post takes each way. That window is not a promise; a busy period can push it toward the top end. Ordering the certified copy from Companies House well ahead of any foreign deadline leaves enough room for both steps. Companies House itself usually turns a certified copy around quickly, so most of the wait sits with the apostille stage.
Why a receiving country wants this
A foreign companies registry often asks for an apostilled memorandum and articles before it will register a UK company's branch or subsidiary on its own soil. The document sets out the company's objects and internal rules, which the receiving registry checks against its own requirements. It is one of the first documents any foreign registry asks for when a UK company expands abroad.
A bank abroad may ask for the same paper before opening a corporate account, and a public authority running a tender overseas can request it as proof the bidding company legally exists and is structured the way it claims. In each case, the apostille confirms the Companies House copy is genuine, nothing more. Because the underlying record is public, there is rarely any dispute about whether the copy itself is accurate.
Translation notes
Whether a translated version is needed depends on the receiving registry or bank abroad, not on Companies House or the FCDO. Some accept the English apostilled copy as it stands; others expect a certified translation attached before they will file or act on it. Reading the destination registry's own instructions before ordering the certified copy avoids paying for translation twice.