Which Convention created a need for Apostille Certificates?
Convention 12 entered into force in January 1965, the full title of the Convention is – Convention abolishing the requirement of legalisation for foreign public documents. The purpose of this convention is to remove the need for diplomatic or consular legalisation of foreign public documents. In place of the then complex and drawn out legalisation process was to be a simple certificate issued to a specific format. This certificate being the Apostille Certificate which once attached to a foreign document would remove the need for any further authentication or legalisation of the document when presented in another member country. How does this affect document legalisation for non member countries? The Apostille process has improved document legalisation for many non-member countries as they will often accept a foreign document once it has been issued with an Apostille Certificate and then legalised at the Consular section of their own embassy in the foreign document’s country of origin.
