Schmidt & Schmidt offers the legalization of public documents from Bonaire by apostille.
Bonaire acceded to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents together with the Netherlands in 1965. As the Convention stipulates, no diplomatic authentication or consular legalization of documents from Bonaire is needed for successful 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. Documents from Bonaire do not require prior legalization for use in the Netherlands.
Responsible for issuing the apostille are the following institutions in Bonaire:
- Lieutenant Governor or acting Lieutenant Governor
- Head (or acting) of the Bonaire Population Department
Documents drawn up in Dutch or Papiamento and issued by the authorities and other authorized structures of Bonaire can be apostillized. The apostille is a stamp of rectangular shape. The heading "Apostille (Convention de la Haye du 5 octobre 1961)" written in French is a necessary requirement for the apostille's validity.
The apostillization of public documents in Bonaire includes the authentication of the origin of the document and the authority of the officials who have affixed the signature, seal or stamp on the document. After such verification, a special stamp - the apostille - is affixed to the public document or its certified copy. The apostille is usually placed on the back of the underlying public document or on a separate attached page.
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
- 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 should not contain alien markings or labels.
Additional services
In addition to the legalization of your public documents, we can provide you with high-quality translations.
Should you require company information for use in court, it needs to be legalized as well. We are therefore offering extracts from the commercial register of Bonaire including apostillization and translation.
On average, processing the documents takes up to 14 days.
