Apostille and legalization

We provide a number of specific formal procedures to make the document legal force on the territory of another state.

Apostille and legalization is a series of specific formalities to make the document legal force in the territory of another state. The ultimate goal of the procedure of legalization of the document issued in the territory of one state is the possibility of its submission to the authorities of another state. Legalization of a document is obligatory almost always when it is necessary to submit it to the authorities of another state. This means that the document that has been issued, for example, in Belarus, has legal force only in the territory of the Republic of Belarus, where it can be fully used, but it requires legalization for its submission to the authorities of another country.

There are two types of legalization - Apostille and consular legalization.

Apostille is used to send the document to the countries which have joined the Hague Convention as of 5 October 1961 abolishing the requirement of consular legalization and introducing a simplified procedure of legalization - the stamp "Apostille".

This procedure is called simplified because, on the one hand, it is made fast and by only one authorized body, on the other hand, the document becomes valid in all countries that have joined the Hague Convention.

The requirements for each type of legalization are the same. This procedure can be carried out only on the territory of the country of registration or issuance of the document.

Exceptions to this rule are a few types of documents that can not be legalized, as well as in the provision of documents in the countries with which Belarus has signed a bilateral agreement abolishing the requirement of legalization.

Consular legalization of documents has the same function as apostille, but has some differences from it:

another image;

a list of countries requiring only legalization and not apostille;

Legalization procedure is considered to be more difficult than apostille and consists of several stages. At first the document with translation shall be certified by a notary. Then, the signature of the notary shall be certified by the Ministry of Justice. After that, the Ministry of Justice’s stamp and the signature of the authorized person shall be certified by the Foreign Ministry. And then the document is served at the consulate of a foreign state to complete the legalization process.

The purpose of legalization is to confirm the validity of official documents or the authenticity of officials’ signatures on documents, as well as the validity of stamps and seals. The Consul does not bear liability for the content of the document.

The legalization procedure takes 5 to 8 business days, the apostille - from 2 to 3 days depending on the nature of the documents and the country of destination.

Translations agency Ekvitas provides apostille services in Minsk. Representatives of our company can provide you with apostille and translation of your documents for their submission abroad. You do not have to queue in the notary's office, or in any of the ministries, authorized to issue the apostille.

Translations agency Ekvitas undertake all obligations on apostille, legalization, notarization and translation of your documents. Our experienced managers will take your documents for translation and apostille, say the exact amount of the payment and the time when you will be able to pick up your documents.

The list of member countries of the Hague Convention dated October 5, 1961 (as of January 1, 2013)