Apostille Services

The apostille convention was drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law, and signed on October 5, 1961 to come into effect on January 14, 1965.  It specifies how documents from one signatory country can be certified for legal purposes in all other signatory countries.  It is an international certification comparable to a notariasation in domestic law, and normally supplements a local notary certifying a document.  Costa Rica became a party to the Apostille Convention on Dec 14, 2011.

The convention has 110 parties and is in force for all members of the European Union, however Canada is a notable exception.  This means the document must be certified twice before it can have legal effect in the receiving country. For example, as a non-signatory, Canadian documents for use abroad must be certified by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa or by a Canadian consular official abroad and subsequently by the relevant government office or consulate of the receiving state.

The apostille itself is a stamp or printed form consisting of 10 numbered standard fields. On the top is the text APOSTILLE, under which the text Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961 (French for Hague Convention of 5 October 1961) is placed. This title must be written in French for the Apostille to be valid (article 4 of the Convention). In the numbered fields the following information is added (may be in official language of the authority which issues it or in a second language):

1. Country ... [e.g. Hong Kong, China]
   This public document
2. has been signed by [e.g. Henry Cho]
3. acting in the capacity of [e.g. Notary Public]
4. bears the seal/stamp of [e.g. High Court of Hong Kong]
   Certified
5. at [e.g. Hong Kong]
6. the ... [e.g. 16 April 2014]
7. by ... [e.g. the governor of the special administrative district of Hong Kong, China]
8. No ... [e.g. 2536218517]
9. Seal/stamp ... {of the authority giving the apostille}
10. Signature

The information can be placed on the (back of the) document itself, or attached to the document as an allonge.   An allonge (from French allonger, "to draw out") is a slip of paper affixed to a negotiable instrument such as a bill of exchange, for the purpose of receiving additional endorsements for which there may not be sufficient space on the bill itself

Four types of documents are mentioned in the convention as eligible

• Court documents
• Administrative documents (e.g. civil status documents)
• Notarial acts
• Official certificates which are placed on documents signed by persons in their private capacity, such as official certificates recording the registration of a document or the fact that it was in existence on a certain date and official and notarial authentication of signatures.

Apostilles can be complicated. This process should be done by professionals who fully understand the Apostille process and the requirements of different countries. Otherwise your paperwork could be rejected, costing time and money.

Countries that are signatories of the Apostille convention: