Are you a student who wished to study in another country? Are you planning to migrate to another country? Do you intend to practice your profession in a foreign land? All these plans will never be realized if you have no valid documents with you. And how can you attest to the authorities that your records are authentic? Well, this is by apostilling your papers.
What is an apostille anyway? This is one way of verifying if public documents used are real. The usual documents needing this are the birth certificate, death certificate, and other public records. However, not all countries accept this as binding. Only the countries who joined the
Hague Conference on private international law accept apostilled documents. Hague Apostille is another term for endorsement. In French, this word means "authenticate", "certify" or "complete". It intends to legalize important documents to check their authenticity and for it to be internationally valid. With, these participating countries will not need any unnecessary consular legalization, diplomatic or other certifications.
Take note that there is no expiry in the validity of the apostille, although this is has a date of issue. They don't have any "use date", hence, they don't expire. However, you may come across countries that would require that the apostille done must not be more than 3, 6 or 12 old from the date of issuance.
One common document that needs apostille is the birth certificate. This will be required if the person plans to apply for a dual citizenship, get married, work, move or operate a business in a country that joined the Hague
Apostille Convention. Your birth certificate will need to be authenticated so it will be accepted in the country where you intend to go. If you are in need of apostille California, know that there are many
apostille locations in Los Angeles that you can go to. Just make sure that you choose the best service which caters to your needs well.
Meanwhile, you may encounter terms like "apostille of the Hague" and you wonder what this means. Well, this simply refers to the Hague Convention which is formulated to do away with the legalization requirement mandated for foreign documents. The convention came up with an Apostille Treaty which is recognized as an international treaty made by Hague Conference basing from Private International Law.
Perhaps you would think that notarizing documents will be enough. Well, the truth is; an additional level of authentication will still be required by the foreign country which is a member of Hague Convention. Such authentication is known as "apostille".
Indeed, it can be confusing to understand legal terms like "apostille", "Hague Convention", "notary public" and many more. But you have no choice but to understand them since they are part of the things you need to know. Learning them is one of your legal duties as a citizen in your country. Once you start to grasp the idea why apostille is needed and how this has helped hasten legal processes in many countries, you will appreciate this even more.
