Apostille is an official certificate that gets attached to documents so they will be recognized when presented in another country. South Africa joined the Hague Apostille Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in the year 1995. For that reason, documents that were issued in the country, do not need diplomatic authentication or legalization in order to be accepted in a country that is member of the convention. Moreover, in a case of South African nationals documents that have to be used in a country that is not part of the convention, the documents will have to be legalised using the authentication process. This process is regulated by High Court Rule 63 of the Uniform Rules of Court as the verification of any signature on a document. Legalisation processes differ and so does the documents that need to be legalised. In this instance there is a list of documents for Apostille in South Africa.
Specifics concerning documents for Apostille in South Africa.
The documents that were issued by authorities or other authorized bodies of the government of South Africa published in English or other official languages can be Apostilled. An Apostille certificate can only be issued on an original document. Therefore, the documents must be in a good condition, the stamps and signatures have to be clear and readable as well. The main reason documents require verification is that, a document does not confirm the authenticity on face value. Therefore, they must be certified by an official who is familiar with such documents. Find the list of document for Apostille in South Africa below.
The list of documents for Apostille in South Africa include, but they are not limited to:
Academic documents:
- TEFL certificate
- Foreign qualifications
- South African qualifications
- Academic transcripts
The document of the Department of Home Affairs:
- Letter of No Impediment
- Birth certificate
- Death certificate
- Marriage certificate
- Divorce certificate
Other documents:
- Police clearance
- Copy of drivers license
- Certificate of origin
- Single status affidavit
- Copy of passport
- Power of attorneys
- Travel consent letter
- Articles of incorporation
- Commercial invoice
- Certificate of free sale
What to take into account prior the Apostille process.
The legalization of public documents by means of attaching an Apostille certificate gets conducted at DIRCO (Department of International Relations and Cooperation) and the High Court of South Africa. Members of the public must be aware that both DIRCO and High Court do not offer advice on the list of documents for Apostille in South Africa they should legalize. Every individual has to do their own research on the documents that their destination country require to be Apostilled, as each country has its own requirements, which are governed by their government. It is important to get the process correct from the first stage.
The requirements:
- Some documents could possibly need an official stamp by the issuing institution before issuing the Apostille certificate, such as educational qualifications.
- The country where the documents are intended to be used must require an Apostille as a form of document verification.
- Only valid documents can be Apostilled.
- Foreign documents must be legalised from the country of origin prior the Apostille.
To sum it all up, an Apostille certificate is required in every instance where persons have dealings outside their country of origin which involve some form of official paperwork. Public documents that have to be used in one of the signatory countries will have to be Apostilled prior the date of departure, mostly for visa purposes. The Apostille certificate is also required by destination countries for purpose such as work, marriage, birth registrations, contracts, teaching abroad, foreign property purchases and business transactions. Members of the public must be aware of the fact that some old documents can not be Apostilled and that laminated documents can not be Apostilled.
SA Apostille legalization service.
We offer official documents legalization through the High Court of Pretoria or DIRCO Head Office. Our team specializes in assisting individuals and companies in process Apostille Certificates for all public documents, company and commercial documents that were issued within South Africa to be used by countries who are signatory to the Hague Convention. All that is required of you is to send or bring your documents to our office, we will contact you once we are done and your document is ready. We can also courier the document to the desired address of your choice if you fail to fetch it from our office.
Contact us today!
Cell/WhatsApp: 081 347 6060
Tel: 012 348 3134
info@apostillelegalisation.co.za
