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Bahrain has joined the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in the year 2013. Therefore no diplomatic authentication or legalization of documents from Bahrain is required for the legal communication with another member state of the convention. The documents only need to be stamped with an "apostille" by the issuing state's authorities in order to be valid in the state of destination.
Responsible for issuing the apostille is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Manama. Documents are accepted at two offices: in the office of the Legalization Department in Manama Center (Manama) and in the office of the Legalization Department of the Labor Market Regulation Office (Manama).
Documents issued by the authorities and other authorized structures of Bahrain, published in Arabic or English can be apostilled.
The legalisation process in Bahrain includes verification by authorized officials of the authenticity of a document. After passing through this procedure, a special stamp is placed on the document - an apostille. Usually the apostille is placed on the back of the document, or on a separate sheet, after which the document is stitched.
An apostille is a stamp of rectangular shape. The heading "Apostille (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)" must be in French.
The following documents can be authenticated by apostille:
- Certificates of civil status (certificates of birth, death, marriage and divorce)
- Education documents (school reports, certificates, diplomas)
- Trade register excerpts
- Judicial decisions
- Notarially certified copies of documents
- Notarially certified translations
- Further notarial documents (authorizations, last will, declarations)
- Commercial documents legalized by a state organ of registration (articles of incorporation, registration certificates, tax registrations etc.)
Requirements for the documents:
An apostille can be issued exclusively on an original document. Therefor, the latter must be in an apparent good condition, all stamps and signatures have to be clear and readable. Furthermore, it must not contain alien marking and labels.
Additional services
In addition to the legalization of your documents, we can provide you with high quality translations.
If you want to bring company information before the court, it needs to be legalised as well. We are therefore offering extracts from the commercial register of Bahrain including apostille and translation.
Bahrain Apostille Service - Original Documents Express Service
14 Business Days Service