Documents Legalization / Apostille
An
apostille (French word meaning notation ) is a standard
certification provided under The Hague Conference on Private
International Law: 1961 Convention Abolishing the Requirement
of Legislation for Foreign Public Documents for the purpose
of authenticating documents for use in foreign countries. The
treaty was ratified by the United States on Sept.1, 1981. The
apostille is formatted in numbered fields that allow data to
be understood by the receiving country regardless of the official
language of the issuing country.
What
is an Apostille for?
Apostille
is a form of certification of a document (e.g. Birth Certificate)
intended for use in a country other than where the document
was issued. It is a specific and simplified form of authentication
of a document compared to a regular "multi-step hierarchical
certification procedure" for authentication and legalization,
including certification by the Authentication Office of the
Department of State and legalization by the embassy or consulate
of the foreign country where the document is to be used. Apostille
is introduced as an instrument for foreign certification among
countries that have joined the 1961 Hague Convention abolishing
the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents.
Documents destined for use in participating countries and their
territories should be certified by one of the officials in the
jurisdiction in which the document has been executed. Said official
must have been designated as competent to issue certifications
by "apostille" as provided for by the 1961 Hague Convention.
Who
can issue an Apostiile in the United States ?
It depends
on a document, and a state in which the document is to be apostilled.
Court papers usually are supposed to be apostilled in the court
in which they are issued. State official, military and other
specific kind of documents should be also apostilled in the
relevant offices. Those are rather rare occurrences though.
Most of the time on a regular basis people deal with such documents
as vital and school records, copies of different personal and
corporate documents, etc. Such documents should be apostilled
in the office of the State Secretary of the relevant State.
To be authenticated by the Secretary of State a document must
be executed or certified by an authorized public official in
that state, or notarized by a notary public commissioned in
that state/county, depending on the type of a document. Sometimes
it can be quite tricky to figure out how to obtain an apostille
on specific document. In those cases you might need an expert
assistance.
How
long does it take to obtain an Apostille?
Processing
time depends on a state and a workload in the appropriate office,
and can vary from a day to 2 weeks or longer.
