Schmidt & Schmidt offers the legalization of documents from Chile by apostille.
Chile joined the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in 2015. Therefore, no diplomatic authentication or consular legalization of documents from Chile 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.
The apostille is a stamp of rectangular shape. It should be filled in in the official language of the issuing authority. The heading "Apostille (Convention de la Haye du 5 octobre 1961)" written in French is a necessary requirement for the apostille's validity.
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.)
Responsible for issuing the apostille are the following institutions:
- Ministry of Education and its regional secretariats
- Ministry of Justice and Human Rights
- Civil Registration and Identification Service
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Ministry of Health
The Ministry of Education is authorized to authenticate:
- certificates issued by the Ministry of Education
- certificates from educational establishments
- documents from higher educational establishments
The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights is authorized to authenticate:
- notarial documents
- extracts from the registries
- extracts from court registries
- copies of court decisions
- administrative acts of the Ministry
Civil Registration and Identification Service is authorized to authenticate:
- copies of death certificates
- copies of birth certificates
- copies of marriage certificates
- civil status certificates
The Ministry of Health is authorized to authenticate:
- medical certificates
- vaccination cards
- test results
- laboratory certificates
- medical licenses
- medical resolutions
As part of the competence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , apostilization is carried out by the General Directorate of Consular and Immigration Affairs, which certifies documents that are not within the competence of other departments.
Public documents drawn up in Spanish and issued by the relevant state or local authorities or other authorized structures of Chile can be apostillized.
The apostillization of public documents in Chile 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. Along with the traditional paper apostille service, Chile offers an electronic apostille service. The e-apostille is not attached to the original document, it is issued and stored in an electronic form so that its authenticity can be verified online in a e-apostille register.
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 Chile including apostillization and translation.
On average, processing the documents takes up to 14 days.
