February 9th, 2010

What is an APOSTILLE?

An apostille is a special seal applied by an authority to certify that a document is original or a true copy of an original. Apostilles are available in countries, which signed the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization of Foreign Public Documents, popularly known as The Hague Convention. This convention, created in 1961, replaces the time consuming chain certification process used so far, where you had to go to four different authorities to get a document certified.

Each country party to the Hague Convention designates an authority within its territory that can issue apostilles. For example, in the USA, it is the office of the state's secretary.

Bear in mind that apostilles are not available in some countries such as Canada and Brazil.