Legalisation
SERVICE OVERVIEW
FCO Legalisation
As a legal firm, along with other services, ACM also offers a range of document legalisation services to businesses and private individuals.
What is An Apostille?
An Apostille Certificate is an official certificate issued to documents that will be recognised in certain countries without further Legalisation. The countries that accept and recognise an apostille certificate are the member of Hague Convention.
For the countries that are not on the list may still accept the Apostille but in most cases will require further legalisation. For details please check with the embassies. The documents that we can handle include Birth Certificate, Marriage Certificate, Death certificates, Name Change Deed Polls, Company Certificates of Incorporation, Certificates of Good Standing, Memorandum and Articles of Association, HM Revenue and Customs documents, Certificate of Residence documents, Power of Attorney & Letters of Authorisation (witnessed by a solicitor or notary), Notary Oaths, Educational documents, and many more. Please click here to check document list. To order an paper based Apostille, please follow the link Apply for an Apostille.
What is an e-Apostille?
An e-Apostille is an electronic format of apostille that certifies a notary or solicitor’s electronic signature in either AES (advanced electronic signature) or QES (qualified electronic signature). It is the cheapest and quickest legalisation service offered by FCDO. However, it is not acceptable in all jurisdictions. We strongly advise you to confirm with the receiving party of the document whether an e-apostille is acceptable for the purpose. If it is, as soon as our notarial act is prepared, we will re-produce the whole document including the notarial act as an envelope in electronic format. Our notary will then electronically sign the already prepared notarial act contained in the envelope with the notary’s QES provided by one of the Qualified Trust Services Provider (QTSP) that is certified under eIDAS regulation in Europe. The digitally signed notarised document will then be submitted to FCDO.
When you receive the legalised document with an e-apostille by email you will need to open and view in PDF reader on any desktop or laptop but not on portable devices. The full instruction is given on the cover page of the e-Apostille document that you receive. To order an e-Apostille, please follow the link Apply for an e-Apostille.
Frequently Asked Questions
When a document is to be used in another country lawfully, it is required to be attached with an apostille which is a certificate that confirms the validity of official signatures or seals on the document it is attached to. It is issued by the Competent Authority of the place where the document is originated. The Competent Authority in the UK is Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
No, we lodge applications on behalf of our clients. In the UK, the only competent authority is Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). You may arrange your apostille application directly to FCDO, however, if you do it through IMEX, we make sure that your document meets the legal requirements for an apostille. We also have access to FCDO business counter which means your application is dealt with in an expedite manner when you are in a hurry.
That depends on what types of documents you need for an apostille. For some documents, you can get them legalised if they have been issued in the following ways:
- court and sealed with a wet ink court seal
- public registry, such as a birth, marriage or death certificate, or a company certificate issued by Companies House
- government department and signed by an official, such as a letter of confirmation of tax registration
- registered doctor, such as a medical certificate signed by a doctor
Some other documents certified by a UK solicitor or notary can also be legalised. We are a group of legal professionals and competent to carry out the certification if your documents fall into this category.
If you are not sure whether you document needs to be certified before legalisation, please Contact Us.
When you have multiple documents to be legalised, for example, when you submit your university application you are asked to submit your educational documents altogether, we can make a bundle for you to avoid paying expensive rate for legalisation; or when an overseas authority requests Certificate of Incorporation, Memorandum & Articles of Association, Register of Directors, Certificate of Good Standing of a company under the same name, our normal practice is that we make a bundle of all these documents and then create a certification page listing what are included in the bundle before submitting for legalisation. However, this practice is not recognised by all foreign authorities, such as United Arabic of Emirates where the multiple documents are required to be legalised separately. Many other overseas authorities have rules in this respect differently. We strongly suggest that you may contact the person or unit that requests the legalisation to find out the exact requirements of the legalisation.
When you have multiple documents to be legalised, for example, when you submit your university application you are asked to submit your educational documents altogether, we can make a bundle for you to avoid paying expensive rate for legalisation; or when an overseas authority requests Certificate of Incorporation, Memorandum & Articles of Association, Register of Directors, Certificate of Good Standing of a company under the same name, our normal practice is that we make a bundle of all these documents and then create a certification page listing what are included in the bundle before submitting for legalisation. However, this practice is not recognised by all foreign authorities, such as United Arabic of Emirates where the multiple documents are required to be legalised separately. Many other overseas authorities have rules in this respect differently. We strongly suggest that you may contact the person or unit that requests the legalisation to find out the exact requirements of the legalisation.
Apostille is recognised by all the contracting parties of the Hauge Convention (CCH 1961 Apostille Convention). Since it was first signed, over 120 contracting parties joined the Convention, one of the most recently joined member of states is China that joined on the 7th March 2023. If your document is going to be used in the place that is not a member of state, a further legalisation / attestation at that embassy is required. You may find more information about the Hague Convention Member States here.
Yes. You may find it quicker and easier to place your order online on our website which is designed to speed up the process of your request.
Yes. Before sending the documents to us for apostille, please make sure the passport holder is duly signed on the relevant page.
Yes. If you choose “Verify Student Qualifications” service, with a small charge we can carry out the verification process and certify it independently before put forward for an apostille of your qualification. This service is designed for employers or any other organisations that require to verify the qualifications of students and alumni of the UK universities or colleges. If you provide the details of your qualification correctly the verification can be done very quickly.
In some circumstances, we will require the original documents, such as Birth Certificate, Marriage Certificate that were issued in the UK whereas for others, we can process them electronically. The delivery address is ACM Legal, 25 Wilton Road, London SW1V 1LW and the email address is office@acmlegal.co.uk if you want to send it by email.
Sometimes, it may cause inconvenience to you if sending us the original documents for whatever the reasons. You may prefer to send the documents by email or to upload the documents when you place the order. Upon the completion of the whole process, you will receive an apostille certificate that is not different to the ones that you may receive in any other circumstances expect from the certification wording by adding “seen by me electronically”.
The standard turnaround time is 3-5 working days. However, we offer 1 day or next day service (depending on when your document(s) is delivered to us) when your requirement is extremely urgent.
For the Standard Service, we are one of the service providers that have access to Milton Keynes Drop Off Service on a daily basis which means that we can provide the service for you much faster but with a lower rate, whereas for the One Day Service we are one of the registered companies that have exclusive access to Urgent Service.
Yes, only in rare and exceptional cases, you you need to provide detailed explanation of your urgency. The document has to be delivered to us before 10.00am during a weekday, the collection is around 3:30pm on the same day.
Yes, the Certified Translation is upon request. You will need to indicate that a translation is required during the ordering process. We will contact you to arrange this service during the process of your relevant required services. The Certified Translation service is available for most major language pairs.
Once your document is complete, unless you have arranged a collection in person, we will dispatch the legalised documents via Royal Mail to any UK addresses or DHL Express for any addresses abroad. You will be given options to select when you place order online.