F.A.Q - apostille

The word “Apostille” (pronounced a-pos-TEE, not a-pos-TEAL or a-pos-TILL-ee) is of French origin. It comes from the French verb “apostiller.”, which derives from the old French word postille meaning “annotation”, and before it the Latin word postilla, a variation of the word postea, which means “thereafter, afterwards, next”

(Usage of the words “Apostille” and “apostiller.” dates back to the end of the 16th century in France; they were included in the first edition of the Dictionary of the Académie française in 1694, which provided the following definition: “Apostille: An addition in the margin of a written document or at the bottom of a letter.

During the negotiations at the Hague Apostille Convention, the term “Apostille” was preferred because of its novelty. The meanings of the word Apostille described above are still valid today.

An Apostille Certificate is an official government Certificate printed or stamped onto the reverse side of a single page document or attached to multiple paged documents with green notary ribbon making it become one inseparable document. It authenticates the seal and or signature of the public official or authority such as a notary or registrar issuing the document.

Prior to the introduction of Apostille Certificates, the burden on international governments, law courts, universities, businesses and other organisations to ascertain whether or not a foreign public document was authentic and reliable, was quite onerous and difficult to assess.

To overcome these predicaments, on the 5 October 1961, The Hague Convention abolished the requirement of formal legalisation of foreign public documents by Embassies or Consulates in a successful attempt to prevent these problematical appraisals having to be made.

The Convention reduced all of the cumbersome formalities of embassy or consulate legalisation to the simple delivery of a Certificate in a prescribed form, entitled "Apostille", to be issued by the appropriate government department of any country ratifying the Convention.

 Here is a list of Popular South-African Public Documents that we legalise on a daily basis:

•  Permission letter for minor children to travel or visit overseas;
• Powers of Attorney;
• University degrees, University Academic Transcripts;
• College diploma;
• Technicon Diploma;
• Matric Certificate;
• School certificate;
• Doctor, Dentist applications for overseas appointments;
• HPCSA applications South-Africa;
• Birth Certificates;
• Death Certificate;
• Marriage Certificate;
• Divorce Certificates;
• Company Incorporation Documentation;
• Close Corporation Documentation;
• Marital status documents;
• Letters of No Impediment;
• Land Transfer and Mortgage documents for transactions outside SA borders;
• Notarised copy of Passport, Drivers License and other identity documents;
• Police Clearance Certificate ("no criminal record") issued by South African Police Services;
• Applications for employment overseas with supplementary documentation; Contracts;
• Affidavits;
• Declarations;
• Permission for minor child to travel with one parent or unattended;
• Notarised Copies of Document;
• Applications for employment overseas;
• Miscellaneous notarised documents for use overseas.

 This list is not exhaustive. If you have a document not listed above which you require apostilled, contact us to make inquiries or get a quotation. Should you have any questions regarding our services, need a quotation or want to proceed with legalising your documents please contact us or visit our offices.

Benefits of using our apostille and legalisation service
We save you time – Do you really want to spend time researching the process, finding specialised attorneys and notaries, making appointments, standing in ques and travelling to and from the notary, governmental departments and the registrars office?

We save you money – Not only do we save you travel costs but due to economies of scale we offer the complete service at a very competitive price and time frame.

Quick service – If we are certifying your documents this is included in our normal processing time. You do not lose any hours or days organising your own certification. We legalise batches of documents on a daily basis.

Attorney Firm – We handle all your documents in-house. Completely safe and confidential.
Complete Service – Let us handle your documents while you get on with everything else. We check, certify, legalise and attest your documents.

An Apostille only certifies the origin of the public document to which it relates: it certifies the authenticity of the signature or seal of the person or authority that signed or sealed the public document and the capacity in which this was done.

An Apostille does not certify the content of the public documents to which it relates.
Apostilles are not grants of authority and do not give any additional weight to the content of underlying documents.

An Apostille may never be used for the recognition of a document in the country where that document was issued – Apostilles are strictly for use of public documents abroad.
It is up the country where the Apostille is to be used to decide how much weight to give to the underlying public document.

An Apostille only certifies the origin of the public document to which it relates, never the content of that document.