Schmidt & Schmidt offers the legalization of documents from Samoa by apostille.
Samoa acceded to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in 1999. Therefore, no diplomatic authentication or consular legalization of documents from Samoa 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.
Responsible for issuing the apostille is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Documents drawn up in English or Samoan and issued by Samoan authorities and other authorized bodies can be apostillized.
Legalizing public documents in Samoa implies authenticating 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 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 decree
- Notarized copies of documents
- 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.)
Only original documents issued by public authorities or notarized copies can be apostillized.
Requirements for the documents:
The apostille can be exclusively issued for the original document. Therefore, the underlying document 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 can therefore provide you with extracts from the commercial register of Samoa certified by the apostille and translated into the language of the document's state of destination.
On average, processing the documents takes up to 14 days.
