What is an Apostille

When a document is required in an official capacity by an authority or organisation outside of the UK, it is often very difficult for them to determine whether the document is genuine and legal. To legalise your documents, you will need to obtain an Apostille.

Apostille is an official government issued certificate added to documents that validates its authenticity, legalising it for use overseas.

In 1961 under the Hague Convention, it was agreed to abolish the requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, and instead the Convention introduced a simplified certification of such public documents to be used by the countries that have joined the Hague Convention.

This allows member countries of the Convention to recognise public documents issued by other member countries if those public documents are authenticated by that country using an internationally recognised certificate of authentication known as an “Apostille.”

In the UK an Apostille is a certificate attached by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) verifying the authenticity of that document so that it can be recognised by official bodies and accepted when used in another country. Each Apostille is dated, given a unique reference number and registered.

For documents intended for use in countries which are not members of the Hague Convention, the Apostille may require further attestation by consular of that country before the document can be used overseas.