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Hong Kong has joined the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in the year 1965. Therefore no diplomatic authentication or legalization of documents from Hong Kong 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 the legalization of documents is the Supreme Court. The apostille must be signed by the Registrar of the Supreme Court who puts his signature on the certified document.
Documents issued by the authorities, notaries and other authorized structures of Hong Kong, published in English or Chinese can be apostilled.
The process of legalization of documents in Hong Kong in accordance with the requirements of the Hague Convention includes verification by an authorized official of the authenticity of the document. After passing through this procedure, a special stamp - an apostille - is affixed to the document.
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. Therefore, 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 Hong Kong including apostille and translation.
HK Apostille Service - Original Documents Express Service
14 Business Days Service