Do you need to send official documentation overseas? Brosgall Legal | Apostille Services is Vancouver's leading Apostille services law firm.We provide guaranteed one-stop apostille services to individuals, companies, and other law firms. As Canada has ratified the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention, your documentaton needs to be properly apostilled to establish its authenticity overseas. Please see the attached a sample Apostille certificate so you can see what yours will look like. The entire process currently takes about six weeks.
This article explains the ins and outs of the international notarization and Apostille process, and how Brosgall Legal can assist. After you've finished reading this article, you can print the information postcard attached at the very bottom for easy reference.
We're proudly local; not a national or Ontario business that attempts to match you up with a contracting notary here in Vancouver. Dealing directly with us is a huge advantage. If you have any questions, or want to book an appointment, please send us an email or call us at 604-685-2326. You may also visit our home page for further information.
Vancouver is a global city, and the people who live here have connections around the world. Perhaps you're doing business in Brazil, selling property in the USA, getting married in Mexico, teaching English in Japan, incorporating a company in Great Britian, travelling to Australia, or working in overseas... the list goes on and on. And there are just as many reasons why you might need to send official documentation overseas. You might need to notarize a document. Maybe you need your signature to be legally witnessed and notarized. You might need to send certified copies of corporate certificates, licenses, identification, transcripts, passports, qualifications, diplomas, etc... Or quite often, our clients need a Power of Attorney sent overseas for real estate transactions. In all these circumstances however, before any document can be sent overseas, its authenticity will need to be verified. To do this, a document must be notarized and Apostilled - our niche area of practice.
The Apostille's Purpose
The purpose of international document notarization and Apostille certification is to solve a practical problem: how can civil and judicial officials reliably verify the authenticity of a document that was issued in another country? The solution is Apostille certification, so that the lawyer's or notary public's signature in Canada becomes verified by the authorities. We'll go into more detail below, but in effect, this is how the Apostille certification works:
- Your documentation is notarized by a notary (notarization); and
- The notary's signature and standing is confirmed by a B.C. or Canadian authority (Apostille).
So, what you really end up with is the verification of the notarization of your documentation - so to speak!
Unfortunately, bureaucracy and 'red tape' combine to make this process very cumbersome. Most people are not familiar with the Apostille process. When you add online mis-information, plus language and cultural barriers... it can be quite an ordeal. And for important documentation being sent overseas, you need to get it right the first time. At Brosgall Legal - Apostille Services, we know the ins and outs of international verification of documents, so we can help. This is an example of an Apostille Certificate.
Essentially, if you need to sign a document in Canada, or get a copy of a document in Canada for use abroad, it must be notarized and Apostilled. This process confirms the authenticity of the original document, the registration of the notary or lawyer in their respective governing body, and verifies their signature and seal as being 100% authentic. Once a notarized document has been Apostilled, it becomes legal and valid in the foreign jurisdiction.
The Notarization and Apostille Process
Apostille certification (which will be explained further below) is essentially an international notarial seal that many countries, including Canada, use to legalize documents. There are two steps to the Apostille process:
1. Notarization
This is a simple procedure whereby you visit our notary office with your ID and the document you need to be witnessed or certified as a true copy. For notarizations, we check your ID, and observe as you sign the document. We then attach the signed document to our notarial certificate and apply our signature, stamp, and notarial seal to confirm your identity, and the validity of your signature. For certified true copies (notarized copies), we take a photocopy of your document and compare it with the original to ensure it is a true copy. We then attach the copy to our notarial certificate and apply our signature, stamp, and notarial seal to certify that the attached copy is a true copy of the original.
So basically, a signature notarization or notarized/certified copy is the procedure that a notary takes to confirm that your signature or copied document is authentic. When necessary, a certified translation of your documentation is added to the notarial certificate. We work closely with a certified translators fluent in over 100 languages.
2. Apostille
The notarized document is then certified by the BC provincial or Canadian federal authority so that the notary or lawyer's signature and status can be authenticated - to make sure they are authentic. An Apostille clerk physically compares the signature and seal of that notary or lawyer with the samples registered on file to confirm authenticity. The clerk also confirms that the lawyer or notary is a member in good standing with their respective governing body. Once these tasks are completed, an Apostille certificate is permanently attached to the notarized document with an eyelet. To ensure our Apostille service goes smoothly, Mr. Brosgall's signature and official notarial seal have been pre-registered at all relevant authentication offices.
Once the notarized document is Apostilled, the document is legally valid for use in the foreign country. It is then returned to either our office. We can give it to you, or deliver it to your overseas lawyer or family on your behalf.
Apostille Certification
The traditional method for authenticating documents was the authentication chain method (authentication and legalization). However, by the early 1960's, this method was seen by most countries as slow, cumbersome and costly. So, on October 5, 1961, The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents was enacted to facilitate circulation of documents around the world. This convention is commonly known as the Apostille Convention. In the countries that are signatories to the Apostille Convention, including Canada, the authentication process is reduced to a notarization, and the issuance of an Apostille certificate. Since 1961, many countries have become signatories to the Apostille Convention.
The objective of the Apostille Convention was to eliminate the requirements of diplomatic or consular legalization, and thus replace the cumbersome chain authentication method described above, which requires verification by multiple authorities. Apostille certification is basically the equivalent of an international notarial seal. An Apostille certificate is a standardized having ten numbered items of information. An example of a BC Apostille certificate is attached below. Once the notarization is completed by the notary, the Apostille certificate is attached to the document by the appropriate government agency. An Apositille certificate confirms that the signature, seal or stamp on the main document is genuine. Every Hague Convention signatory country must accept Apostille certificates from other signatory countries.
The term 'apostille' comes from the word postille (French for, marginal note or notation), which originally came from post illa verba (Latin for, "after these words"). It is pronounced 'uh-pos-til'. During the negotiations for the 1961 Hague Convention, the term 'Apostille' was preferred because of its novelty. According to a reporter at the time: "Following a discussion on terminology [in the French language], the word Apostille may have been preferred because of its appealing novelty (it was adopted by 7 votes to 3, the other suggestion having been attestation)." [From the Permanent Bureau.]
Brosgall Legal - Apostille Services would be pleased to assist you with your international notarization and Apostille requirements. You may also visit our home page for further information.
Vancouver Notary Public, Commissioner of Oaths, and Lawyer
Brosgall Legal's owner and principal, Adam Brosgall, is an experienced Vancouver Notary Public, Commissioner of Oaths, and Lawyer. He is fully qualified, licenced, and insured to handle international notarizations and Apostille certification. If you have any questions, please feel free to send us an email, or call 604-685-2326 to book an appointment. Same day service and walk-ins are welcome. Please see our Vancouver Notary home page for our other services, and we look forward to seeing you.
