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Apostille and Legalization
Apostille and Legalization
We have designed a Free help – notary and legalisation , which will help you. It will inform you what your document needs for it to be valid in the receiving country. You can also call our notaries for free guidance.
FCDO / Apostille
The FCDO Apostille or Legalisation certificate is a verification from the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office of the notary’s (or other competent / public official’s) authority to sign.
Many countries have signed up to the Hague (or Apostille) Convention which has as an aim the harmonisation and simplification of legalisation between signatory countries.
For example, every EU country has signed up.
The FCDO services:
- Standard Postal Service
- E-Apostille
- Business counter next day service (Milton Keynes) (in reality, this is a 3-4 Working Day turnaround)
- Urgent Service (Milton Keynes) – this is a very limited service offered by FCDO.
It is early days for the E-Apostille – as at February 2024, just 11 countries have signed up to recognise E-apostille. We are concerned about our clients’ documents not being accepted in the receiving country and then being ‘out of option’ – so would only use this for documents where there is no urgency or business imperative. We can deal with E-Apostille if clients state this as their preference and will keep E-apostille progress under review.
Embassy / Legalisation
There remain several countries that have legalisation formalities which go further than Apostille. These countries require the consulate/embassy of the receiving country in London to also legalise (authenticate) the Notary and document. Some have specific requirements to enable them to legalise, which can be dependent on the type of document (i.e. private or commercial). This can, in a few instances, include an international Chamber of Commerce.
Timescales, procedure, cost and formality vary considerably from country to country so it is best to check with us.
