The Apostille is a certificate placed in front of the document that will be presented outside the country where the same was issued. It guarantees the authenticity of the signature and the quality of the person signing the document. The text and format of the Apostille is similar in all countries that are authorized to use the same.

1. What is the Apostille?
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2. What is the Apostille?
Today many people ask themselves the following questions: Why do I have to legalize a docu-
ment that will be sent abroad with the Apostille, if it wasn’t necessary before? Why are public
institutions not accepting foreign documents without the Apostille legalization? These inqui-
ries are causing anxiety for those who perform legal procedures or present documents abroad
and do not know much about the Apostille legalization, to the extent that even the same gov-
ernment offices demonstrate confusion regarding this new process.
The Apostille is a certificate placed in front of the document that will be presented outside the
country where the same was issued. It guarantees the authenticity of the signature and the qual-
ity of the person signing the document. The text and format of the Apostille is similar in all
countries that are authorized to use the same.

3. The Apostille arises from the “Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for
Foreign Public Documents” adopted at the Hague, Netherlands on October 5, 1961 which re-
cently came into effect on August 30th, 2009. Since its first proposal at the Hague Convention,
the purpose of the Apostille was to eliminate the requirement of consular legalizations for pub-
lic documents issued and approved in a country part of the agreement which at the same time
would be presented in another country party of the agreement. For example, for those foreign-
ers applying for Dominican residence whom are required to present their birth certificate, the
same must contain the Apostille for it to be accepted at the General Migration Department,
government institution where residence applications are filed.
The great advantage of this new legalization requirement is that once the apostilled document
is presented in a country member or signatory of the convention, the same does not have to be
legalized at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic, nor by its equivalent
in the country where it will be presented. An additional benefit is that the person submitting
the apostilled document does not have to legalize the same before the consulate of the country
where it will be presented. This results in significant time and money savings for the process
that is being conducted since fewer requirements must be fulfilled.

4. It is important to mention, the Apostille does not alter in any way the document and does not
change the essence and content of the same. The Apostille certificate contains the following
information: Country of origin of the document, name of the person who signed the public
document, quality of the person signing, seal or stamp corresponding to the institution who
issued the document, name of the city where the document was certified, name of the author-
ity that certified the document, serial number and date of the Apostille, and signature of the
official authorizing the apostille and its rights.
Summing up, the Apostille will be only required for documents issued by government institu-
tions, public and private education institutions, official certifications of private documents or
official and notarial authentications. The documents that do not need to be apostilled are those
issued by diplomatic or consular agents, administrative documents relating to a commercial or
customs operation or those documents that will be presented in countries that are not members
of the agreement.

5. There are currently 92 countries members of the convention:
Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan,
Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei, Bulgar-
ia, China, Colombia, Cook Islands, South Korea, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Slovakia, Spain, USA, Estonia, Fiji,
Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Grenada, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel,
Italy, Japan, Kazakstan, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Ma-
lawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Namibia ,
New Zealand, Niue, Norway, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian
Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San
Marino, Serbia, South Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela.