An Apostille stamp is simply just an A5 sheet of paper that is physically attached to the back of your documentation by the UK Government Office to prove that it is valid and legitimate for use overseas. This effectively prevents any forged or illegitimate documentation being processed or passed through the systems overseas.

Many overseas authorities worldwide will ask for an Apostille stamp to be issued to your document to prove that it is a valid and legitimate document. As the UK Government Office carry out their own personal verification checks and issue their stamp, this prevents any forged or illegitimate documentation being passed through the systems around the world.

The UK Apostille will only legalise the document in which it is attached to that has also been embossed with the government seal. Therefore if you have various documents the correct method of practice to satisfy the requirements of the overseas authorities is to have them legalised individually. However, when a group of qualifications are in one person’s name, or a group of company documents are in one company’s name we can bind the documents together as a set. The fee for issuing one apostille to a solicitor certified set of documents is just £130.00! The bound set processing method is generally acceptable but if you are unsure please check with whoever is requesting the apostille documents from you.

Many countries are members of Hague Convention and have agreed to various treaties. The ‘Convention for abolishing the requirement for foreign public documents’ is a treaty between many countries across the world that confirms if an Apostille is affixed to a document in the country of its origin they will recognise this to be valid and legitimate documentation. Some countries are not signed up to this convention and due to this additional embassy stamps are also required.

If the country you need to use the document in isn’t a member, you might need a different kind of authentication known as embassy or consular legalisation.

While the apostille itself doesn't expire, the document it authenticates may not be accepted if considered "old" by the receiving country (e.g. Criminal record background checks). Some countries may request the apostille has been issued recently (e.g. China ask for 90 days). Check with the respective authority to see if there's a time limit.

Some countries are not members of the ‘Hague Convention’. This means that as well as the Apostille stamp being required for your documents, further embassy attestation stamps are also necessary to satisfy the requirements of the overseas authorities. If your documents are for use in a Country that are not included within the Hague Member list then they will also require embassy stamps. As well as providing the Apostille service, we also deal with many of the necessary embassies across the UK that are not members of the Hague Convention and can have the relevant stamps issued for you.