The Hague Convention abolishes the requirement for diplomatic and consular legalisation for public documents originating in one Convention country and intended for use in another. Documents issued in a Convention country, which have been certified by a Convention apostille, are entitled to recognition in any other Convention country without any further authentication.

Such recognition is an obligation on the part of any country in the Convention to the other countries party to the Convention, and the federal courts and state authorities have been alerted to this obligation. Consular officers in Convention countries are prohibited from placing a certification over the Convention apostille.

Coddan specialises in the legalisation of overseas and UK corporate documents in the UK, the USA, and offshore. We can notarise and apostillise any company documents. We can also apostillise any other documents, but they will need to be notarised by your local Notary, as he will need to witness your signature before we can apostillise the documents.

Legalisation is the process of authenticating a signature, seal, or stamp appearing on a document. The signatures or seals of UK public officials (such as Notaries and Registrars), or an overseas apostille (authentication by a federal official) appearing on a document will need to be authenticated and legalised before the documents can be accepted in an official capacity in a jurisdiction that is not party to the Hague Convention.

The above procedures apply for documents originating from countries who are signatories to the Hague Convention, documents from those countries who are not signatories might also need to be authenticated by the appropriate embassy.

Note: the "apostille" attests to the validity of the signature of the notary public, county official, but not of the underlying signature nor of the contents of the document.

The Hague Convention applies "to public documents which have been executed in the territory of one Contracting State and which have to be produced in the territory of another Contracting State". The Convention does not apply to domestic filing of documents. "Apostilles" will not be issued for documents intended for use within the UK.

For more information about apostille, please click here