In 1978, Spain signed the Hague Agreement Abolition of the Legalization Requirement for Foreign Public Publications. As a result, Spain’s public documents do not need to be diplomatically authenticated or consularly legalised in order to successfully communicate legally with other Convention members. For the documents to be accepted in the state of destination, only an apostille certificate with an “apostille” stamp from the issuing state’s authorities is required. Therefore there is no need for apostille legalisation. There is a set of Spanish documents that must be apostilled in South Africa in order to be used in Spain. For private purposes, the most common documents include vital records, such
as birth, marriage or divorce certificates. You may need these apostilled in South Africa if you are marrying abroad or taking a joint child to live with you in Spain. If you have started studying in South Africa, but decide to continue in Spain, your South African education documents will have to be apostilled in South Africa before you can present them to educational authorities in a different state. If you are moving for work purposes, then your police or criminal records certificated would need to be apostilled.
How do you legalise your documents to go to Spain?
If you are from South Africa and moving to Spain, your documents should be apostilled and translated, by a sworn translator into Spanish, which Global Apostille Legalisation can help with. Since both Spain and South Africa are part of the Hague Apostille Convention of 5 October 1961 you will only need your documents apostilled at either the South African High Court or the Department of International relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) or through using an Apostille agency like Global Apostille, who work hand in hand with the two South African entities who issue Apostilles (DIRCO and the High Court). There is no need for Embassy legalisation.
Are documents required to be legalised every time you travel to Spain?
Certificates with an apostille do not expire. Although the apostille certificate will contain an issue date, it will not expire.
An apostille should typically be accepted whenever it is issued. Yet, there are rare situations where a current apostille on a document may be required. Like One example is a criminal record check. Your criminal history check and apostille may be required to be less than three or six months old by a prospective employer or visa authority. This makes sense because a recent criminal background check is required.
The certificate of no impediment is an additional document that needs to have been apostilled within the last three to six months. This document concerns marriage between two people. It demonstrates that nothing stands in the way of the pair getting married.
Global Apostille Legalisation Services
Global Apostille is a Pretoria-based legalisation agency that assists corporations and individuals in getting apostilles and embassy legalization services in South Africa for documents to be used abroad. We make the legalization and apostille of South African documents simple for our clients.
Understanding that document authentication can be challenging and time-consuming, our main aim is to ensure our clients feel at ease. Our goal is to lessen this load by offering top-notch apostilling services at reasonable rates, without any hidden charges.
Global Apostille can handle various types of documents on your behalf from Birth Certificate to Power of Attorney. Our service offers a comprehensive solution, ensuring both official translation and legalization processes are straightforward. If you want to know more about our services, feel free to get in touch with us.
Tel: 012 348 3134 | 081 347 6060
Email: info@apostillelegalisation.co.za
