Schmidt & Schmidt offers you a qualified Hague apostille service for your public documents issued in North, South and Central America in accordance with the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents as well as the consular legalization of your documents issued in the states that have not yet acceded to the Convention.
The apostille is a stamp of a rectangular shape. The heading "Apostille (Convention de la Haye du 5 octobre 1961)" written in French is a necessary requirement for the apostille's validity. The Hague apostille confirms the authenticity of the signature, the position in which the signer has acted, and the authenticity of the seal or stamp with which the document is attested. Each apostille is registered and contains the issuance date and a unique number. In each country the apostille is issued by competent authorities designated for each document type.
The apostille has to be obtained in the country that has issued your document. You can find the detailed information about the country-specific requirements for the apostillization in the country information sections
Almost all countries of the Americas are the members of the 1961 Apostille Convention. For non-members of the Convention (ex. Canada), public documents are subject to the consular legalization. This procedure implies the certification of the document's validity first, by the corresponding ministry, then by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and lastly, by the consulate of the document's state of destination. The document will be valid exclusively in the country whose consulate has legalized it.
