Frequently asked questions about legalisation

What is Legalisation?

Legalisation simply means confirming that a signature, seal or stamp appearing on a document is genuine. Our legalisation service manages the administrative side of achieving this for your company, should it be necessary.

What is The Hague Convention?

The Hague Convention of October 1961 was set up as a simple system to allow documents originating in one member country to be easily recognised as authentic in another member country. Member countries of the Hague Convention of 1961 accept an Apostille as a confirmation that the documents are genuine.

Who can legalise documents?

There is only one government department in the UK that is authorised to legalise documents - The Foreign & Commonwealth Office located in London.

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office legalise documents by checking the signature of the government official or notary public who signed it. They then they attach an Apostille to the document to confirm that the document is genuine.

What is an Apostille?

An Apostille is a small certificate showing the following details of company legalisation:

1. The name of the country of origin of the document,
2. The name of the signatory of the document,
3. The place and date of certification,
4. The number of the certificate,
5. The seal and signature of the authority issuing the certificate.

An Apostille has become the favoured form of document validation by member countries of the Hague Convention.

Apostilles are often accepted as a form of validation even by countries that are not signatories to the Hague Convention.

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