Schmidt & Schmidt offers the legalization of your documents from Belgium by apostille.
Belgium has joined the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in 1973. Therefore, no diplomatic authentication or consular legalization of documents from Belgium is required for the legal communication with other member states of the Convention. The documents only need to be attested by an apostille certificate with an "apostille" stamp on it by the issuing state's authorities in order to be valid in the state of destination.
The Belgian apostille is a stamp of rectangular shape in Dutch, French or German. To be authenticated with the apostille, a document must be issued in Belgium in one of the following languages: French, Dutch, German, English, Spanish, Italian or Portuguese. If the document is filled in in another language, a translation by a certified court interpreter into one of the official languages of Belgium is required. Afterward, the signature of the translator must be certified by the chairman of the court. In this case, the translation and the original document will be apostilled separately.
At the moment, an electronic apostille is available for the documents issued in Belgium. The authenticity of the e-apostille can be checked online in the electronic Apostille Register.
Responsible for issuing the apostille is the Legalization Division of the Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs.
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)
- Extracts from the commercial register
- Court decisions
- Notarially certified copies of documents
- Notarially certified translations
- Further notarial documents (authorizations, last will, declarations)
- Commercial documents legalized by a state registration body (articles of incorporation, registration certificates, tax registrations etc.)
Requirements for the documents:
The apostille can be exclusively issued for the original document. Therefore, the latter must be presented in good condition, with all stamps and signatures clear and readable. Furthermore, it must not contain alien markings or labels.
Additional services
In addition to the legalization of your documents, we can provide you with high-quality translations.
Should you require company information for the court, it needs to be legalized as well. We are therefore offering extracts from the commercial register of Belgium including apostillation and translation.
On average, it takes 14 days to process the documents.
Courier services are charged and invoiced separately according to the courier service’s rates.
You can pay for our services by PayPal, bank transfer or credit card.
| Service | Price incl. German VAT 19% | Price excl. VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Price for an apostille for a document from Belgium without international shipping | from 178,50 € | from 150,00 € |
