The Hague Apostille: what it is for and how to get one

The apostille is an annotation placed on a public document (or on an extension attached to it) certifying the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which the signatory acted and, where applicable, the identity of the seal or stamp it bears. It is provided for in Convention XII of the Hague Conference, of 5 October 1961.

Its purpose is to give a Spanish public document validity abroad. When the destination country is a party to the Convention, the apostille replaces the old chain of legalisations: with that single annotation the document is recognised in any other signatory State without requiring additional authentication formalities.

The same mechanism works the other way round: a foreign public document apostilled in its country of origin is accepted in Spain without consular legalisation, provided that country is also a party to the Convention.

Public documents can be apostilled, and Article 1 of the Convention groups them into 4 categories: court documents (such as judgments or certificates issued by a court), administrative documents (a category that includes certificates from the Registro Civil, the Spanish civil registry: birth, marriage and death, along with other certificates from public bodies), notarial documents (deeds, powers of attorney or notarial records, for example) and official certificates placed on private documents, such as the certification of a signature or a record of registration.

Private documents (a contract between individuals, for example) cannot be apostilled on their own. A private document can be apostilled once its signature has been certified before a notario (a Spanish notary), because at that point it carries the backing of a notarial intervention and fits into that fourth category of official certificates.

The Convention leaves out 2 cases that do not admit an apostille: documents issued by diplomatic or consular officials and administrative documents relating directly to a commercial or customs operation.

The competent authority depends on the nature of the document, as set out in Real Decreto 1497/2011 (the Spanish royal decree on apostilles). There is no single counter: each type of document is apostilled where it belongs.

Notarial documents and private documents with a signature certified before a notario: the apostille falls to the Colegios Notariales (the regional notarial associations), through their Deans or whoever they delegate to.

Court documents: as a general rule they are apostilled by the Secretarías de Gobierno (governing secretariats) of the Tribunales Superiores de Justicia (the regional High Courts of Justice), and those of Ceuta and Melilla, or by whoever replaces them or receives their delegation. As an exception, documents coming from the Tribunal Supremo (the Spanish Supreme Court) and the Audiencia Nacional (the Spanish National Court) are apostilled by their respective Governing Secretaries, not by the Tribunal Superior de Justicia.

Administrative and Registro Civil documents: these are apostilled at the Gerencias Territoriales (territorial offices) of the Ministerio de Justicia (the Spanish Ministry of Justice) and at the Ministry's Central Citizen Service Office. For administrative and court documents, you may go either to these Ministry offices or to the Secretarías de Gobierno of the Tribunales Superiores de Justicia.

The apostille can be issued on paper or in electronic format. Real Decreto 1497/2011 created the Electronic Apostille Register of the Ministerio de Justicia and regulated the issuing of the electronic apostille, digitally signed with an official body seal.

At present, the electronic apostille is available only for some certificates issued by the Ministerio de Justicia itself; all other documents are apostilled on paper. Where it applies, the electronic apostille allows the receiving authority to verify its authenticity online for years after it was issued, by checking the annotation against the official register. It is worth checking in advance whether the body in the destination country accepts the electronic version or requires the apostille on paper.

You can see the deadlines, the requirements and the current price of the procedure in detail on the Managora service page.

The apostille is only valid between States that have signed the 1961 Hague Convention. If the document has to take effect in a country that is not a party to the Convention, an apostille is not enough: you have to follow the route of diplomatic or consular legalisation.

That procedure is a chain of validations: the document is legalised in Spain through the Legalisations Section of the Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Unión Europea y Cooperación (the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation) and then before the diplomatic or consular representation of the country where it is going to be used.

The first step in working out which route applies to you is to identify the destination country and check whether it appears among the States party to the Convention. Managora carries out that check and sends your document down the correct route, whether that is an apostille or consular legalisation.

Managora prepares and files the apostille for you from start to finish. We check that the document meets the requirements to be apostilled, we identify the competent authority according to its type (notarial, court or administrative) and we handle the procedure without you having to travel anywhere.

If your document is going to a country that is not a party to the Convention, we arrange consular legalisation on your behalf. And if the destination country also requires an official translation of the document, we coordinate it within the same engagement.

To start the procedure and check the current price, go to the Hague Apostille service page on Managora. There you will see the steps, the documents needed and the price in force.