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Apostille and Embassy/Consulate
Apostille
A large number of countries all over the world have joined a treaty that greatly simplifies the authentication of public documents to be used abroad. This treaty is called the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. It is commonly known as the Apostille Convention. Where it applies, the treaty reduces the authentication process to a single formality: the issuance of an authentication certificate by an authority designated by the country where the public document was issued. This certificate is called an Apostille.
An Apostille is a certificate that authenticates the origin of a public document (e.g., a birth, marriage or death certificate, a judgment, an extract of a register or a notarial attestation). What an apostille looks like is shown in the picture.
Apostilles can only be issued for documents issued in one country party to the Apostille Convention and that are to be used in another country which is also a party to the Convention. For this reason your document may require the attestation by its embassy represented in the UK
Embassy Attestation
As previously described, a documents which is required in a country which is not party to the Hague Convention (see Apostille) will require attestation by an embassy. This means that the document will first have to be certified by either a solicitor or notary (as required in the country of destination), then apostilled and can only then be presented to an embassy.
