Document legalisation broadly refers to the process of their validation in a foreign country. The document legalisation process and its duration depend on a number of aspects.
Firstly, it depends on the document country of origin. Countries that are signatories to the Hague Convention of 1961 acknowledge and apply a simplified legalisation procedure called apostilisation. In general, document legalisation process by means of apostilisation is fulfilled as a single stage in a single authority significantly saving time and effort. If a country is not a signatory to the Hague Convention, the legalisation process takes longer. On average, legalising a document with a consular department of such a country's embassy entails going through four authorities.
Secondly, the legalisation process immediately depends on the type of document. According to a common rule, an authority issuing a document within the territory of a country shall legalise it. For example, a birth certificate is to be legalised with the registry authorities, while a certificate of no criminal conviction is to be legalised with the Ministry of the Interior. Business documents are only legalised with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Consular legalisation of business documents is legally unavailable in Russia. The same is the case for apostilisation. Business document legalisation plays a vital role in establishing partnerships with foreign companies.
Our experience
EGO Translating Company has a wealth of experience in translating and legalising various documents. We are capable of providing high-quality services related to the legalisation of any types of document at the shortest possible notice and at relatively low cost. Many years of cooperation with embassies of numerous countries enable us to promptly legalise necessary paperwork, thus releasing our clients from time-consuming and complicated bureaucratic processes. Our client provides us with a document package and gets it back at our office, bypassing a number of stages without having to worry about submission deadlines for a certain document with a given state authority. We take care of our clients.