Legalisation

Most documents that a notary public or a scrivener notary notarise are intended to be effective in a country or jurisdiction other than England and Wales. Legalisation is where a state, eg England and Wales, certifies to another state, ie the receiving jurisdiction, that the signature and seal of a public officer, such as a notary, are genuine, when checked against their register.

The receiving jurisdiction has no way of knowing if the notary's seal and signature are authentic, so the notary's signature and seal may need to be legalised by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and sometimes also a foreign Embassy, Consulate or High Commission, to authenticate the status of the notary.

This process is complicated and differs depending on the receiving jurisdiction's requirements, so specialist advice should always be sought.

Legalisation by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Many states are signatories to the Hague Convention of 5th October 1961 (Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents) (the Hague Convention 1961), so that a document may only need to be affixed