The Republic of Belarus as well as Denmark (effect. from January 01, 2007), Norway, Sweden and more than 70 states worldwide are the signatories of the Convention abolishing the requirement of legalisation for foreign public documents (The Hague, 5 October 1961) drawn up by the Hague Conference for Private International Law during its ninth session in 1960. Under Article 2 of the Convention, the contracting States are required to exempt from legalisation public documents which have to be produced in their territory. For the purposes of the Convention, legalisation means only the formality by which diplomatic or consular agents certify the authenticity of the signature on the document. This limited definition of the term legalisation has more far-reaching implications than one might think at first sight. In the normal course of affairs, only signatures known to the consulate will be legalised. Generally speaking, the signatures are those of competent officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the country of origin. It is usually necessary for a document to be legalised by a number of bodies, resulting in a series (either long or short) of signatures, so that the Consul can legalise a signature he is familiar with. With the abolition of legalisation by the consular agent, the series of previous legalisations is no longer necessary either. The simple formality which has replaced legalisation is the addition of a certificate, or 'apostille'. Many local authorities believe that documents originating from countries which are signatories to the Convention do not require legalisation. This is incorrect. Such documents need not undergo the lengthy legalisation process but they must always have an apostille appended. The Apostille The apostille referred to in Article 3 of the Convention is placed on the document itself or on what is known as the 'allonge' (annexed to the document for this purpose). It is in the form of a square whose sides are at least 9 cm long and the title ("Apostille (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)") must be in French. The rest of the information may be in the official language of the issuing authority. If the Convention does apply to a document, it is important to check whether the apostille has been appended. If properly completed, the apostille confirms the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which the signatory has acted and, where necessary, the identity of the stamp or seal on the document. If there are doubts about the origin of a document, an interested party may contact the authority responsible for appending the apostille. Wat is a public document? What needs to be born in mind when accepting a document from a country which is a signatory to the Convention? First of all, whether it is indeed a public document within the meaning of the Convention. There is no general definition of this term in the Convention, but since the contracting States wished to facilitate the abolition of legalisation, the term must be given as broad an interpretation as possible. In view of this, all documents which are not private instruments are deemed to be public documents. The Convention specifies the following: - documents emanating from an authority or an official connected with the courts or tribunals of the State, including those emanating from a public prosecutor, a clerk of a court or a process server: Since the Convention refers to 'the courts or tribunals of the State', this must be taken to include all judicial decisions given in a contracting State, thus not only the judgments of the courts, but also those given by other, special tribunals and even ecclesiastical courts if they are acting as tribunals of the State. – administrative documents; These include all documents issued by the administrative authorities in a contracting State. The explanatory memorandum referred to above gives diplomas and degree certificates as examples. Certificates of birth/death/marriage and extracts from the population register also fall into this category. – notarial acts; All instruments drawn up by a notary fall into this category. – official certificates which are placed on documents signed by persons in their private capacity, such as official certificates recording the registration of a document or the fact that it was in existence on a certain date and authentications of signatures; The explanatory memorandum assumes that the legalisation of a private instrument by a notary is deemed to be an official certificate, so that the document in question is covered by the Convention and may have an apostille appended. The Convention does not apply to: – documents drawn up by consular and diplomatic agents. For example, a declaration drawn up by the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in the Netherlands to the effect that a person is unmarried does not require an apostille. – administrative documents relating directly to commercial transactions or Customs formalities. These documents are subject of consular legalisation. Which authority issues an apostille? An apostille is issued by a designated central authority. In the Republic of Belarus an apostille may be given only to Belarusian official documents by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus on documents issued by judicial authorities and courts; by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus on documents issued by relevant educational authorities; by the State Committee for Archives and Administration of the Republic of Belarus on documents issued by relevant state archives; and by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus on all other documents. If there are doubts about the origin of a document, an interested party may contact the authority responsible for appending the apostille. Article 7 of the Convention obliges the competent authorities to keep a register or card index in which the apostilles issued are recorded. Such as system must specify: · the number and date of the apostille; · the name of the person signing the public document and the capacity in which he has acted; · if the document is unsigned, the name of the authority which has affixed the seal or stamp. To get acquainted with the status and competent authorities of foreign countries, authorized to issue Apostille stamp, you are welcome to visit the site of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (http://www.hcch.net). Consular fee for legalization of an official document at the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in Sweden is EURO 35,00. Consular fee should be paid in advance only in local currency to the Embassy's account with the Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken No. 5277 - 10 097 49, IBAN-kontonummer SEK: SE1350000000052771009749, Bic-kod (SWIFT): ESSESESS and a receipt of payment should be presented together with other documents to the Embassy’ address. As the consular fees are introduced in EURO, the payment in local currency should correspond the official currency exchange rate established by the Swedish Bank (Sveriges Riksbank) as of 18.00 on the working day prior to the date of payment. The sum to be paid is defined in whole numbers, the last digit should be rounded up to 0 or 5. (e.g. if the fee according to exchange rate is 362 SEK, then the amount to be paid equals 365 SEK; if the fee is 358, the amount to be paid is 360). |
