Document legalization

Due to the lack of familiarity with foreign documents or the entities that issue them, many countries require that foreign documents be legalized to be accepted there. This legalization procedure generally consists of a chain of certifications, by one or more authorities of the country of origin of the document and of the destination country. The first authority certifies the issuer of the document, and each subsequent authority certifies the previous one, until the final certification is made by an authority of the destination country that can be recognized by the final user there. Public documents must be authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or equivalent of the country of origin and then legalized by an embassy or consulate of the destination country located in the country of origin. For example, an Egyptian document to be used in the Netherlands must be authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt and then legalized by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Egypt. In the United Arab Emirates, which is not a member of the Apostille Convention, foreign documents must undergo a multi-stage attestation process. Documents are first authenticated by the relevant authorities in the country of origin, then attested by the UAE Embassy in that country, and finally attested by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs before being legally recognized in the UAE. Some cases may require more certifications. For example, to be accepted in Thailand, a document from the U.S. state of Maryland not issued by a government official must be certified by a notary public, who must then be certified by the clerk of the circuit court in the notary's county, who must then be certified by the Maryland Secretary of State, which must then be certified by the U.S. Department of State, which must finally be certified by the Embassy of Thailand in the United States. In some countries, an additional certification by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the destination country is also required. ==Agreements==

Some countries have agreements eliminating the legalization requirement for certain documents issued by each other, such as between Argentina and Italy, between Brazil and France, between parties of the Convention on the Issue of Multilingual Extracts from Civil Status Records, and between parties of the Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The European Union also has a regulation eliminating the legalization requirement for certain documents of its member states to be accepted by each other. Apostille Convention The Apostille Convention is intended to simplify the legalization procedure by replacing it with a certification called an apostille, issued by an authority designated by the country of origin. If the convention applies between two countries, the apostille is sufficient for the document to be accepted in the destination country. In any case, after the apostille, no certification by the destination country is required. The Apostille Convention requires that countries part of the convention direct their embassies and consulates to no longer perform legalizations of documents where the convention applies. but in cases where a consular certification alone would otherwise be sufficient to legalize a document and the apostille procedure requires more steps or higher fees, the convention may actually result in a more complex or more costly procedure to certify the document. ==References==