Legalisation

Our fast and professional legalisation service is invaluable to overseas customers.

Legalisation (sometimes spelt ‘legalization’) is an important process for limited companies that originate overseas or are likely to have extensive overseas dealings. The process of legalisation involves creating an internationally-recognised apostille (certificate) verify the details on the documents.

Why chance this task to anyone else? Premier Solicitors is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and have been awarded by independent assessment on behalf of the Law Society the Lexcel Quality Mark, thereby granted accreditation with the Law Society’s practice management standard. Premier Solicitors has an in-house Notary Public who is regulated by the Faculty Office of the Archbishop Canterbury.

The procedure for document legalisation

Step1:  We obtain a signature from our in-house Notary Public to confirm that the documents are genuine. In The UK notaries public are usually solicitors who, in addition to their legal work, are allowed to ‘notarise’ (officially authenticate) documents. A signature from Notary Public is not necessary where a document has been signed by a UK government official.

Step2:  We then visit the FCO in person to present the notarised documents.

Step3:  The FCO checks the signature of the Notary Public against their list of registered officials and attaches an Apostille to the document.

Time scale for legalisation:  We act on your instruction immediately and can usually despatch the legalised documents in 3-5 working days.

Further confirmation by consulate

Some countries require further confirmation of Apostilled documents by their own consulate in the UK. Please call us to obtain a cost for this service.

Fixed Fee & Low Cost UK Legalisation

We normally charge a set fee of £60 per document/signature required to be attended to by the Notary Public.

If further independent witnesses are required, we charge £5 per witness.

For companies, we are required to undertake searches at Companies House and these cost in the region of £1 to £6, and these disbursements will be in addition to our fees.

A full quotation can only be provided if full papers are provided to the Notary Public in advance of making an appointment.

Non-routine work is charged for on an hourly rate basis. The hourly rate of the Notary Public is £225.00. The Notary Public will agree this with you beforehand, but can usually offer a fixed fee.

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office charge £30 to affix an Apostille to a document. Their postal service usually takes 2 to 3 weeks. We can arrange this for you for a fee of £70 per document (including the FCO fee of £30, and courier fees), and this usually takes 4 to 5 days.

If you additionally require consular legalisation from a specific embassy, we can arrange this for you. Please let us know in advance and we can obtain a fee quote from our courier agent.

Fees for Saturday appointments must be paid for in advance.

If you require a home visit, for the elderly and infirm, we charge a fixed fee of £150 for dealing with a personal document within a 10 mile radius of the office. We require you to send in your ID documents so we can copy them in advance, and send in full papers so we can prepare and print any notarial certificates, and require payment in advance.

If you require an office visit, for company documents, we charge this on a time spent basis at the hourly rate of the Notary Public. We require you to send in full papers so we can prepare and print any notarial certificates, and can invoice the company for the agreed fees.

We do not take plastic, so our fees are payable by cash or cheque. Cheques are to be made payable to “Mr Kambli NOTARY PUBLIC”.

Frequently asked questions about legalisation

What is Legalisation?

Legalisation simply means confirming that a signature, seal or stamp appearing on a document is genuine. Our legalisation service manages the administrative side of achieving this for your company, should it be necessary.

What is The Hague Convention?

The Hague Convention of October 1961 was set up as a simple system to allow documents originating in one member country to be easily recognised as authentic in another member country. Member countries of the Hague Convention of 1961 accept an Apostille as a confirmation that the documents are genuine.

Who can legalise documents?

There is only one government department in the UK that is authorised to legalise documents - The Foreign & Commonwealth Office located in London or Milton Keynes.

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office legalise documents by checking the signature of the government official or notary public who signed it. They then they attach an Apostille to the document to confirm that the document is genuine.

What is an Apostille?

An Apostille is a small certificate showing the following details of company legalisation:

1. The name of the country of origin of the document,
2. The name of the signatory of the document,
3. The place and date of certification,
4. The number of the certificate,
5. The seal and signature of the authority issuing the certificate.

An Apostille has become the favoured form of document validation by member countries of the Hague Convention.

Apostilles are often accepted as a form of validation even by countries that are not signatories to the Hague Convention.

Call us today on 01234 35 80 80 to speak to a member of our qualified team.