Legalization or Apostilles: different procedures depending on the destination country

You must present French documents abroad

To prove their validity, foreign authorities (administration, bank, university, employer, notary…) require that your documents be apostilled or legalized in France.

However, these two quite different procedures have the same objective: to make your documents valid and indisputable abroad.

Apostilles or legalization: what are the differences?

The process is different depending on whether the country is a member of the Hague Convention or not. In the first case, we will obtain an Apostilles. In the second case, we will proceed to legalization, according to the regulations in force in the destination country.

Legalization is a more restrictive procedure, which requires the payment of fees and consular taxes, as well as a prior certification of the documents by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

We automatically apply the necessary procedure, to ensure that your documents comply with all the requirements of the destination country.

Hague Apostille
Courts of Appeals in France

In France, Apostilles are issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of each Court of Appeals, according to an extremely strict compliance procedure for documents and signatures. The Apostille is issued for a specific country. After being registered, the Apostille is dated and numbered.