Schmidt & Schmidt offers the legalization of documents from Mayotte by apostille.
As a french overseas department, Mayotte acceded to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in 1965. Therefore no diplomatic authentication or legalization of documents from Mayotte 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 apostille is the Court of Appeal in Saint-Denis (La Réunion) due to the absence of a court of appeal in Mayotte.
The process of legalization in Mayotte involves verifying the authenticity of the document by an authorized official. After passing through this procedure, a special stamp (an apostille) is affixed to the document.
The authentification process consists of a verification of the origin and the authenticity of the document. The proceedings are concluded by marking the documents with a special stamp, in other words - the apostille. This stamp is usually applied on the backside of the document or an additional sheet of paper before the documents are stapled together.
An apostille is a stamp of rectangular shape. The heading "Apostille (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)" must be in French. The stamp indicates the signature verified by the apostille, the date and the identification number of the apostille itself.
Afterward, the document is sealed by the Court of Appeal in Saint-Denis.
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)
- Excerpts from the commercial register
- Judicial decisions
- Notarially certified copies of documents
- Notarially certified translations
- Further notarial documents (authorisations, last will, declarations)
- Commercial documents legalised 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 original documents. These documents must be in an evidently good condition, all stamps and signatures have to be clear and readable. Furthermore, it must not contain external markings and labels.
The processing of documents usually takes us about 14 days.
