Apostille/ Legalisation

The Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (HCCH 1961 Apostille Convention) facilitates the use of public documents across countries and regions. This is sometimes known as the “Hague Apostille”. The purpose of the Convention is to abolish the traditional requirement of legalisation, replacing the often long and costly legalisation process with the issuance of a single Apostille certificate by a Competent Authority in the place where the document originates. Legalising a document is not as difficult as it seems – there are assistance available and once your document is apostilled it will be accepted by the members of Hague Conventions.

In the UK apostilles are being issued by the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Developemnte Office) at the Legalisation Office and the apostille stamp is to show the document is genuine. If your document is issued by a UK Government then it can be proceed with legalisation directly, whereas if the document is issued in the UK but not by the government then it needs to be certified by a solictior/ notary public in advance.

Apart form the more common cause of legalisation, expats from the UK are sometimes required to legalise the birth certificate/ put apostille on marriage certificate. As the GRO is responsible to issue these doucments the FCDO can process legalisation on them striaght away; however, if a document is issued by other UK organisations (such a university degree) then it will needed to certify by a solicitor/ notary public, then FCO legalisation – if the legalised document is going to be used in a non-Hague Convention mmeber then it will also need to authenticated by the relevant Embassy (e.g. Chinese Embassy if use in China).