Legalisation services

Document legalisation is the process that involves a number of formal procedures to assign legal status to a document so it can be accepted in another country.

The purpose of legalisation is to make a document issued in one country officially recognized by government agencies or organizations in another country. Simply put, legalisation is required to make your power of attorney issued, for example, in Mexico, valid in another country.

There are two main types of legalisation:

• Consular legalisation
• Apostille

Consular legalisation is a procedure for certifying the validity of official documents or confirming the signatures of officials authorized to certify signatures on documents. Put more simply, this is one way to legalise documents when carrying out business in a foreign country. It is similar to apostille, but unlike it, consular legalisation is used when legalising documents issued by organisations from those countries that are not parties to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (October 5, 1961). Compared to apostille, it is a more complex bilateral procedure.

An apostille is a special stamp affixed to official non-commercial documents issued by institutions and organisations of countries participating of the 1961 Hague Convention. In essence, apostille is a simplified legalisation, because apostille can be done quite quickly compared to the longer procedure of consular legalisation. An apostille stamp can be placed both on original documents and on their notarized copies.

Official documents intended for use abroad, unless otherwise required by an international agreement, are subject to consular legalisation.

Examples of documents subject to legalisation through the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) include:

• bills and invoices;
• certificates and declarations;
• agreements between legal entities;
• foreign trade agreements;
• employment contracts for foreign citizens;
• accounting and audit reports;
• certificates, letters, and other commercial documents.

In accordance with international practice, there are a number of documents that are not subject to legalisation. These include originals and copies of documents that contain a photograph such as passports and other documents with a similar function (including identity cards); trade union membership cards; employment record books; military IDs; pension cards; driver licenses; references; documents of estates and religions affiliation. Legalisation of documents is also not required for countries which have a basic bilateral agreement with the Russian Federation, according to which legalisation of documents is not required.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) legalises commercial documents or the documents that cannot be notarized for the typical form of consular legalisation. After legalisation by the CCI, it is necessary to affix the seal of the embassy of the destination country.

Legalisation by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Russia takes place in two stages that are certification of documents by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and certification at the embassy of the destination country.

In order to legalise documents, you will need to provide us with originals or in some cases notarized copies of documents that need to be legalised.