Schmidt & Schmidt offers the legalization of documents from Sint Maarten by apostille.
Sint Maarten, as part of the Netherlands, acceded to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in 1967. Therefore, no diplomatic authentication or consular legalization of documents from Sint Maarten 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.
Responsible for issuing the apostille are the following institutions:
- The Prime Minister of Sint Maarten
- The President of the Civil Registry Office
In practice it is advised to contact the Civil Registry Office first.
Public documents from Sint Maarten do not require the apostille certification for use in the Netherlands.
All public documents issued in English or Dutch by the local authorities are eligible for the apostille certification.
Legalizing public documents in Sint Maarten 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 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
- 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 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 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 Sint Maarten including the apostille certification and translation into the language of the document's state of destination.
On average, processing the documents takes up to 14 days.
