Legalizations you need BEFORE the translation
Sometimes, for a document to be considered valid it must bear certain legalizations, which must be affixed BEFORE it getting a sworn translation. Go on reading and you will learn what might be applicable to your particular case and how to proceed if you want to obtain the relevant legalizations.
For a country to recognize the legal validity of a public document issued in another country, that document must bear a legalization.
Those public documents can be birth, marriage or death certificates, diplomas or academic transcripts, good conduct or criminal record certificates (“certificado de reincidencia”, as it is called in Argentina,) court orders (adoption, alimony, divorce degrees, etc.,) powers of attorney, deeds, corporate documentation such as by-laws or articles of association, testaments, among others.
APOSTILLE
You will see in the image above the list of countries which are signatories to The Hague Convention (updated as at 15/09/2014.) If you want to confirm the information with the official website of the Convention, please click here to see the updated list of countries.
If your document was issued in Argentina and it must be submitted to a country which appears among the signatories of The Hague Convention, you will have to obtain an apostille by approaching the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto -aka Cancillería- in Spanish) or any of the Notaries Public’s Associations (since, on 1st December 2003, an agreement between the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Federal Council of Notaries Public (Consejo Federal del Notariado Argentino) by which all Notaries Public Associations in the Argentine Republic are authorized to legalize documents under the apostille frame. You can click here to visit website of the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs and find out about times, fees, etc.
I suggest that you find out at the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship what kind of legalization your document should have BEFORE they can apostille it: for example, a document which has been issued by an Argentine province must be legalized by the Ministry of the Interior (Ministerio del Interior, Obras Públicas y Vivienda) before it gets to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is also possible that diplomas, academic transcripts and other documents related to education have to be legalized first by the Ministry of Education and, in the case of medical doctors, nurses, dentists, psychologists, etc., by the Ministry of Health. All prior steps to an apostille can be informed to you by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship (see the website above or phone beforehand.)
If your document was issued in a country that appears among the signatories to The Hague Convention and you have to submit it to the Argentine authorities, you should enquire at the body or entity to which you must produce it whether the apostille from the issuing country must be on your document.
In case the apostille is needed, you must contact the issuing country of the document so that they guide you on how to get the apostille. Sometimes the embassy can do this, sometimes not – and then the holder of the document him/herself must ask for an apostille directly from the relevant authorities in the country that originated the document.
You can see the information on all the foreign embassies accredited to Argentina by clicking here.
If the country that issued your document has no representation in Argentina, my suggestion is to google its ministry of foreign affairs (eg. "Latvia Department of Foreign Affairs" or "Botswana Ministry of Foreign Affairs") and then contact this body by email or phone. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, London, Paris or Berlin, so you can algo google "Embassy of Belize in Washington" o "Embassy of Laos in London" and something interesting might come up!
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CONSULAR LEGALIZATIONS
When it comes to countries which are not signatories to The Hague Convention, a consular legalization might be necessary.
If your document was issued in Argentina and you have to submit it to a country which is NOT on the list of signatories to The Hague Convention, you should enquire with the embassy of that country what kind of legalization you have to obtain from the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For instance, Canada is not a signatory of The Hague Convention and the kind of legalization you have to obtain from the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs is called “Habilitado”.
I suggest that you enquire at the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs what legalizations are needed prior to the apostille.
If your document was issued by a country that is NOT on the list of countries which are signatories to the The Hague Convention and you must submit it to the Argentine authorities, your document must be legalized by the relevant authority of the issuing country (usually, the Ministry or Department of Foreign Affairs) and then authenticated by the Argentine consulate in that country.
On 5th October 1961 a convention was signed in The Hague by which the countries that signed agreed a single legalization procedure. This legalization is called APOSTILLE and when a signatory affixes an apostilla on a document it has issued, all the other signatories recognize that document as valid with no need for a further legalization.
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Argentina joined The Hague Convention in 1987 and since then all documents issued by countries which are members of The Hague Convention must bear an apostille to be valid in Argentina. Likewise, all documents issued by Argentina must have an apostille affixed by the Argentine authorities in order to be valid in those countries which are signatories to the Convention.
SAMPLES OF AN APOSTILLE AFFIXED BY THE ARGENTINE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS (LEFT) AND ANOTHER AFFIXED BY A PROVINCIAL NOTARIES PUBLIC’S ASSOCIATION (ABOVE)
SAMPLE OF APOSTILLE AFFIXED BY NEW ZEALAND (ABOVE.)
SAMPLE OF "HABILITADO" LEGALIZATION FOR DOCUMENT TO BE PRODUCED IN CANADA (BELOW.)​
Please take into account the legalizations you might need to get after the document has been translated. Clic here to find out how to go about it!
