Document
Info & Process

What documents

can be

apostilled?

Pretty much anything that has been issued in the UK, can be apostilled. There are restrictions on educational documents; this must have been issued by accredited organisations and will be refused an apostille if they haven’t been. There are also restrictions on how documents can be certified prior to the apostille being applied for, so please contact us in the first instance if you have any questions at all about the process.

Some documents that haven’t been issued in the UK can be apostilled, for example, photocopies of official documents such as Birth Certificates, etc. Again, if you have any questions about specific documents, please get in touch.

Different types

of documents

Basic

A Basic Apostille is for a document that requires no prior certification by a solicitor ot Notary Public. Typically these are government issued documents that have been signed or stamped by government officials. This includes, Birth, Marriage and Death Certificate, ACRO/ICPC Certificates,  HMRC Documents, Letters issued and signed/stamped by Government Departments and Court issued documents signed by a Court Official/Judge or ink-stamped with the Court’s own stamp. If a solicitor has already certified your document in the correct manner, you can also use the Basic Service.

Enhanced

An Enhanced Apostille is for a document that has to be certified by a solicitor prior to the application being made for the apostille. This can be in one of two ways; as an original or as a true copy. The certification must be completed by a UK registered and practising solicitor, stating how they are certifying the document (e.g. as an original or a true copy), using their personal signature (not a company signature), their company address and the date they made the certification. Sometimes, it will be made clear to you, by whoever is asking you to have your documents legalised, in which way they need them to be certified but if not, please check with them as there isn’t really a single way to get this done; it’s very much up to whoever is requesting the document be apostilled. Examples of these documents would be: Degree and other Educational Certificates, Passports, Powers of Attorney, DBS Checks, Disclosure Scotland, PDFs of Court issued documents, etc.
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