Latest update as of 25/08/2022
In a previous article we outlined plans for the digital apostille in the UK. These plans came to fruition this week with the introduction of the e-Apostille.
It is important to note that the e-Apostille is not replacing the physical apostille; both means of legalisation will work in tandem for UK documents being presented in other countries.
How will this work?
Every effort is made by the legalisation team to complete orders as quickly as possible.
We provide estimated processing times on our website, and within email communications, based on experience and recent orders that we process. In general, these are a good guide to the expected time to legalise documents. If your order is time sensitive, we kindly advise that our processing times are approximate and not the essence of the contract when ordering a service.
If you have a Deed Poll and need to present this outside of the UK you may be asked to obtain an apostille for the document.
Deed Polls are legal documents recording a person’s change of name. They are often called Name Change Deed Polls.
The person changing their name makes a formal statement confirming their new name and renouncing the use of their previous name. For example, Susan Smith may be formally changing her name to Susan Jones and will use the new name of Susan Jones at all times.
Supporting our customers with document legalisation at market leading prices is a priority. We want you to know that when you select our service you are getting a fast apostille at the best price.
Over the last 20 years we have always worked to reduce our costs and not increase prices. In fact, our prices are lower now than at any time in the history of the apostille!
When presenting a UK issued birth, marriage or death certificate to an overseas organisation or government office you may be asked for an apostille and a translation. The apostille is added to UK documents so they will be accepted outside of the UK and the translation is completed so that the document content can be easily read by the recipient.
We can add the UK apostille to all GRO issued certificates. The GRO issue many certificates including:-
The apostille is issued by the UK, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to verify the signature of the legal official who has signed a given document.
If this signature is not already known to the FCDO then further action is required. The signatory, i.e. solicitor, doctor or registrar, must contact the FCDO directly following these instructions –
Update - We are no long able to assist with this service.
Not only are we one of the leading providers for legalising UK documents, we can legalise documents originating from other countries in certain cases too! If you need to legalise your South African documents please get in touch to find out how we can help.
Living in Spain has been popular with the British for years, but many Brits are now concerned about the impact of Brexit.
Many British people have their residence in Spain and now they are not allowed to stay more than 3 months in Spain, therefore, they have to acquire a visa, apostille their documents and make sworn translations.
For several months the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) have been working on the development of e-apostilles. This is something the government is keen to implement to simply the legalisation of documents. The FCDO have been working to map out what a digital apostille solution would look like.
The apostille is a government certificate issued on a UK document that is being presented overseas. In the UK the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ‘Competent Authority’ for issuing apostilles. Working alongside the FCDO are business services, like us, that assist customers in obtaining the apostille on their UK documents.
Speed! The FCDO take around 2 to 3 weeks to issue an apostille. We visit the FCDO office for an expedite service and complete most orders in around 2 days.