You will know your document needs to be apostilled if your foreign lawyer or official has asked you to provide a UK document and they have said it must be apostilled or legalised.
After you have had the document notarised it will need to be sent to the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office. The FCDO will look at the document and check that signatures, stamps and seals match their records. The document may then be legalised by attaching a stamped official certificate called an ‘apostille.’
Many countries accept this as the final step to having a document accepted overseas but for other countries consular legalisation is required as well.
You might deal with legalisation yourself, your notary may do this for you or a legalisation agent may be needed. It is always important to check the requirements of the receiving jurisdiction. There will be costs associated with legalisation.
Contact me to discuss the best way forward.
