Documents issued in US which need to be used abroad must be “authenticated” or “legalized” before they can be recognized as valid in the foreign country.
Such documents range from powers of attorney, affidavits, birth, death and marriages records, incorporation papers, deeds, patent applications, and other legal papers.
The number and type of authentication certificates you will need to obtain depend on the nature of the document and whether or not the foreign country is a party to the multilateral treaty on “legalization” of documents.
If your document is intended for use in a country which is a party to a treaty called The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (“Hague Legalization Convention”), obtaining a special “Apostille” certificate is generally all that is required.
The current list of countries which are parties of the Hague Legalization Convention can be found at the Hague Conference on Private International Law website.
Please note that you will need to get authentication, if required, before getting your document translated, as this certificate will also need to be translated as part of the document.
Express Language Solutions offers full range of services, related to authentication of documents, starting from preparing and/or getting document to be apostilled or legalized and up to obtaining proper certification on your document.
Contact us today and we will be glad to solve all your documents authentication issues.
