Apostille and consular legalization of documents are the ways of confirmation of the legitimacy of documents issued by official state authorities, for their presentation in another country to whom it may concern. These documents include all kinds of certificates, education certificates, powers of attorney, documents from a Civil Registry Office, etc. – all documents that do not have photos of a document holder.

Consular legalization is a complex and time-consuming procedure. For added convenience, the Hague Convention on the mutual recognition of documents issued in member countries of the Convention, and replacing consular legalization with a simplified procedure – the issuance of “Apostille”, was adopted in 1961 by a series of countries. The apostille text should contain information on the state name, position and name of the person to put his or her signature on the document, the city name etc. in English, French, or the official language of the state issued the apostille.

For countries that did not participate in the Hague Convention, the documents should be legalized, which means that it is necessary to confirm the authority of officials who issued official documents. This process is more complex. The legalized document is filed with the certified translation; then papers are actually legalized – usually in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice, and after that – in the consulate of the country in which the papers are to be provided. In this case the document will be in force only in one particular state. That is the paper you legalized for the USA will not be valid for China.

If you need help with the legalization of documents and issuance of apostille, please contact our translation agency. Our experts will advise you on these issues and help to resolve any problems concerning the legalization and apostille.

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