LEGALIZATION OF DOCUMENTS

Documents issued in the UK which are to be used abroad in support for instance of work permit/visa applications or marriage licenses, are often required to be legalized. The type of documents that have to be legalized varies from country to country but the most common documents requiring legalization are: marriage certificates; birth certificates; educational/degree certificates and medical certificates. Companies intending to set up offices overseas usually require their Certificate of Incorporation to be legalized.

Document legalization within the UK tends to fall under two categories:

• UK government legalization conducted by the Foreign Commonwealth Office
• UK based foreign Embassy legalization, also sometimes referred to as the attestation or authentication process.

LEGALIZATION BY THE FOREIGN COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (FCO)

What is it?

The l egalization (apostille) is an official process whereby the authenticity of a signature, seal or stamp appearing on a specific document is confirmed. The legalization of documents is conducted by a UK government officer at the FCO. The FCO holds a database of official UK bodies such as solicitors, notaries, religious ministers; doctors etc. and records of signatures/seals of a number of these professionals.

Who does what?

The FCO verifies the stamp/signature on the document and then attaches an apostille (legalization certificate) to confirm that it is genuine.

For documents issued or/and to be used in countries signatory of the Hague Convention, the legalization process only involves obtaining the ‘apostille’. Documents issued or/and to be used in countries which are not signatory of the Hague convention will have to be authenticated as well.

Nigeria is not a party to the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961.

EMBASSY legalization, ATTESTATION, AUTHENTICATION

Document legalization/attestation requirements can vary form embassy to embassy. Some embassies will insist on only original documents, while others will accept certified copies. Some embassies will accept documents notarised by a solicitor, while others will insist on it being performed by an actual Notary Public. It is important that you verify the levels of legalization/authentication that is being asked of the country that you intend to visit.

For some nationalities, organising a simple tourist trip to France for instance will require having to get marriage certificates authenticated by their embassy in London before being able to obtain a Schengen visa. This is currently true for people with marriage certificates issued in India, China and an increasing number of other countries.

ECS can provision the full legalization process for all the countries which Embassies allow their final authentication process to be carried out on documents submitted by a third party.