Schmidt & Schmidt offers the legalization of documents from Vatican.

Consular legalization of public documents from the Vatican

The Vatican has not acceeded to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents. Therefore, documents from the Vatican cannot be legalized by apostille, they can only be recognized for use abroad after their consular legalization.

Consular legalization is the process of authenticating or certifying a legal document so a foreign country's legal system will recognize it as with full legal effect that is carried out by the diplomatic or consular mission of the country in which the document is to be used.

Consular legalization of foreign documents for use in the Vatican

Any public document issued abroad can be legalized for use in the Vatican according to the procedure required in the state of issuance of the document. Foreign documents have to be finally legalized by the representations and apostolic nunciatures of the Vatican to be validated for the Vatican. Please note that the Holy See does not have relations with the following fifteen countries: Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Comoros, the Maldives, Mauritania, Oman, Somalia, North Korea, Laos, China, Vietnam, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Tuvalu.

The following documents can be legalized:

• Extracts from the commercial register
• Certificates of civil status (certificates of birth, death, marriage and divorce)
• Education documents (school reports, certificates, diplomas)
• Court decisions
• Notarially certified copies of documents
• Notarially certified translations
• Further notarial documents (authorizations, last will, declarations)