<Tr> <Th> Languages </Th> <Td> French (prevailing in case of divergence) and English </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Apostille Convention at Wikisource </Td> </Tr> <P> The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, the Apostille Convention, or the Apostille Treaty, is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law . It specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states . A certification under the terms of the convention is called an apostille (from Latin post illa and then French: a marginal note). It is an international certification comparable to a notarisation in domestic law, and normally supplements a local notarisation of the document . If the convention applies between two countries, such an apostille is sufficient to certify a document's validity, and removes the need for double - certification, by the originating country and then by the receiving country . </P> <P> Apostilles are affixed by Competent Authorities designated by the government of a state which is party to the convention . A list of these authorities is maintained by the Hague Conference on Private International Law . Examples of designated authorities are embassies, ministries, courts or (local) governments . For example, in the United States, the Secretary of State of each state and his or her deputies are usually competent authorities . In the United Kingdom all apostilles are issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Milton Keynes . </P>

Hague convention abolishing the requirement of legalization countries