Apostille Stamp (FAQ)

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What is the basic purpose of an Apostille Stamp?

There are many public documents which are required overseas. Examples of few such public documents are:

Government Documents such as Birth Certificates, Death Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Court Documents like judgments, Police issued fingerprints, photocopies of government documents and State Police Checks.
Private Documents such as Company documents, Wills and Powers of Attorney.
Commercial Documents.
Education Documents such as University documents or degree, Technical College qualifications or documents, Secondary school qualifications or documents, Public primary school documents or Private college or school documents.
Foreign Language documents such as Translations or Documents prepared by notary public in a foreign language.

If you want to use such public documents overseas, they should be properly authenticated and legalized. This involves a very slow process of many individual authentications by various official authorities. These official authorities are of the country where the document was issued and the Embassy or Consulate of the country where the document is to be used.

To simplify this complicated document legalization process, many countries across the world have joined an Apostille Stamp Treaty also called as Hague Convention Countries of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents.

In all the countries where this treaty applies, a single Apostille Stamp or Apostille Certificate is sufficient to legalize the public document in question. This Apostille stamp should be issued by a designated authority of the country, where the public document was issued.

Apostille stamps are used millions of times each year and have proven to be very useful to the countries that are party to the Apostille Convention.

What is Apostille attestation?

Apostille is a simple certificate issued by designated authority to authenticate and attest the origin of a public document.

A Model Apostille Attestation certificate will have the following format:

APOSTILLE
(Convention de La Haye du octobre 1961)
1. Country: —————————————————————
This public document
2. has been signed by —————————————————
3. acting in the capacity of ———————————————
4. bears the seal/stamp of ———————————————-
Certified
5. at —————————— 6. the ———————————
7. by ———————————————————————-
8. No ———————————————————————
9. Seal/stamp: 10. Signature:
————————— ———————–

When will you need an Apostille Stamp?

Apostille attestation is only valid in those countries where both the issuing country and the country where the document will be used are party to Apostille attestation Convention. Apostille service is only used when you want to use a public document abroad.

To give you a detailed understanding, Apostille attestation is required when all the following conditions apply:

The country where the public document was issued is party to the Apostille service convention;
The country where this public document is to be used is also party to the Apostille service convention;
The country where this document was issued, considers it to be a public document by law;
The country where this document is supposed to be used requires an Apostille attestation (under Apostille service convention) to recognize it as foreign public document.

Are there any special circumstances when the Apostille Stamp is not used?

Yes, it is possible that a country party to Apostille Stamp Convention have exempted a document from any legalization requirement. It is also possible that the country where the public document will be used has abolished or simplified the requirement of an Apostille.

You should always confirm from the intended recipient of a public document, whether as Apostille stamp is required in your circumstances.

Does Sheen Services provide Apostille Service?

Yes, we are specialist Apostille service providers. Our experienced team provides Apostille services for many countries that are members of Apostille Attestation Convention.

Does Sheen Services provide Apostilles for UK?

We provide specialized services for Apostille UK. Please feel free to contact us if you are facing any issues or need more information related to Apostille Stamp UK.