Document Legalization & Apostille Explained

11 August 2010 | FrontPage,News | 5 Comments

Document Legalization refers to the four-step process in which documents are certified as authentic or genuine prior to being used in countries that are not signatory (adjective form, not noun form) to the “Hague Convention”. There are four standard steps needed to have a document recognized as legally binding and bona fide by foreign governments, agencies and corporations. These steps are as follows:

The document is notarized by a public notary in the State of origin or in Washington, DC.
The document is then certified by the Secretary of the State in which the document was notarized, or the DC Office of Notary Commissions & Authentications if notarized in DC.
The document is then authenticated by the US Department of State Authentication Office (they authenticate the certification by the State or the District of Columbia
The document is then legalized by the consular office at the Embassy of the country where the document will be used.

An important additional step is often required for specialized or technical documents — agricultural, commercial, economic, energy, military and scientific documents need additional consular review and approval.

Washington Express Visa Pays all fees on your behalf.

Countries that are not signatories to the Hague Convention and need to have full Document Legalization are the following:

Afghanistan	Algeria	Angola
Bahrain	Bangladesh	Benin
Bolivia	Brazil	Burkina Faso
Burma/Myanmar	Burundi	Cambodia
Cameroon	Canada	Chad
Chile	China	Congo Republic
Congo Democratic	Costa Rica	Cote d’Ivoire
Cuba	Denmark	Egypt
Eritrea	Ethiopia	Ghana
Guatemala	Guinea	Haiti
Indonesia	Iran	Iraq
Jamaica	Jordan	Kenya
Kuwait	Kyrgyzstan	Laos
Lebanon	Liberia	Libya
Macedonia	Madagascar	Malaysian
Mali	Mauritania	Morocco
Myanmar/Burma	Nepal	Nicaragua
Niger	Nigeria	Oman
Pakistan	Paraguay	Peru
Philippines	Qatar	Rwanda
Saudi Arabia	Senegal	Sierra Leone
Singapore	Sri Lanka	Sudan
Syria	Taiwan	Tajikistan
Tanzania	Togo	Thailand
Tunisia	Turkmenistan	United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Uganda	Uruguay	Uzbekistan
Vietnam	Yemen	Zambia
Zimbabwe

Apostille refers to the two-step process in which documents are certified as authentic or genuine prior to being used in countries that are signatory to the “Hague Convention”. Signatories to The Hague Convention require that documents have: one, been notarized; and two, that they are then certified. Government/Federal documents need to be authenticated by the originating countries’ foreign affairs ministry (in the US, the Department of State in Washington, DC).

Countries that are Signatories to the Hague Convention and require an Apostille are the following:

Albania	Antigua
Argentina	Armenia
Australia	Austria
Azerbaijan	Bahamas
Belarus	Belgian
Belize	Botswana
Bulgaria	Columbia
Croatia	Cyprus
Czech Republic	Dominican Republic
Ecuador	El Salvador
Estonia	Fiji
Finland	France
Georgia	Germany
Greece	Honduras
Hong Kong	Hungary
India	Italy
Iceland	Israel
Japan	Kazakhstan

Paul C. Hofford

Operations Manager

Washington Express, LLC

12240 Indian Creek Court

Beltsville, MD 20705

301-210-3500

www.washingtonexpressvisas.com

5 Comments for this entry

public records
September 9th, 2010 on 9:42 am

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October 1st, 2010 on 6:37 pm

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