Apostille is a "certification"
Filed under: Law | Comments Off
An apostille is a kind of a documentary device, a certificate that is attached to another document being certified. This word came from French language where its meaning is “certification”. Actually it is an instrument of legalization of another document, which is made in order to use the document concerned in foreign countries for legal purposes.
An apostille can be used in all the states which are the members of the 1961 Hague Convention. It is an intergovernmental convention, result of which is designated to simplify the matters of documentation. It makes the legalized document lawfully valid in all the member countries. At present there are more than 90 members of the said Convention. An apostille cannot be used as a separate document; it is valid only together with the document to which it is attached. Such a kind of certification is used for non-commercial documents only.
An apostille always certifies the authenticity of a signature on it and the person’s capacity as an official of a certain institution. Besides, it may also certify the authenticity of a stamp or a seal of a certain organization, according to Article 5 of the said Convention. An apostille does not need any further certification or legalization. It is recognized by all the public authorities of all the states which are the members of the 1961 Hague Convention.
As a rule, an apostille may be required in two main cases. First of all, there may be a need of certifying some documents from any organization in a foreign country for their further use in your state. Those may be, for instance, documents of a foreign company required for establishing of a subsidiary within the territory of your state. And the second type of apostille use is represented by those cases where you need to legalize your document by means of apostille for its further use outside of your state’s territory. If it is your situation, you may need translation of your apostille to the language of the state where it is to be represented.
Every apostille consists of several obligatory elements. First of all, it includes the name of a state from which the document originates. Then comes some information concerning a person who signs the document, i.e. his or her name and the capacity in which that person was acting. If the document concerned is unsigned, the apostille requires the name of the corresponding authority affixing a seal or a stamp. Besides, an apostille must include data concerning the place and the date of certification, as well as the authority which issues the certificate, the number of a certificate and the signature of authority which issues the certificate, together with its seal or stamp.
The apostille terms, though they are not so complicated, may differ a little in different states. But it’s not a problem, since today there are plenty of web pages where you can learn all the apostille news, including the latest ones, as well as all the necessary information concerning the apostille terms.