Most people assume the divorce decree is the document that matters. The marriage certificate, after all, describes a union that no longer exists. Both assumptions are wrong, and both produce stalled applications in foreign jurisdictions.
Italy's recognition of US marriage certificates runs through a system of local civil registries — the comuni — and the apostille is only the first half of the document chain. The second half is where most US filings fail.
Status of Forces Agreements determine what rights a US service member's spouse carries in a foreign country. The marriage certificate is the document that proves the relationship, and its apostille is the document that makes it valid abroad.
Americans married outside the United States face a different document chain — and the apostille they need is not a US apostille, but one issued by the country where the wedding took place.
The visa rides on a single foundational document, and most filings that stall do so because that document was prepared incorrectly, presented late, or never authenticated in the way the National Visa Center actually requires.
Spain's family reunification path runs through a translation requirement that catches most US filings, a freshness window that is rarely volunteered up front, and a consulate that does not interpret either of those rules loosely.
The document on the wedding-day mantle, signed by the officiant, framed and hung in the hallway, is rarely the document a foreign authority will accept. There is a version of the certificate that matters for legal purposes abroad, and most US couples have never seen it.
Foreign authorities apply freshness rules to marriage certificates, and the rules catch most US couples off guard. The clock does not run from the wedding date. It runs from the date the state vital records authority issued the certified copy.
A US same-sex marriage certificate can be apostilled like any other US marriage certificate. Whether the destination country recognizes the marriage represented by the document is a separate question, and the apostille does not answer it.
Birth certificates prove who your ancestors were. Marriage certificates prove the name changes between them — and citizenship authorities treat any gap in that chain as an unproven claim.
Income thresholds and health insurance get the attention. For married applicants, the properly authenticated marriage certificate is what establishes the relationship the rest of the application depends on.