Schmidt & Schmidt offers the legalization of documents from South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands by apostille.
As an overseas department of the United Kingdom, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands acceded to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in 1964, the Convention came into effect on January 24, 1965. Therefore, no diplomatic authentication or consular legalization of documents from South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands 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 Governor of the Falkland Islands is in charge of the apostille certification of documents from South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
All documents issued by the state autorities of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and drawn up in English are eligible for the apostille certification.
Legalizing public documents in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands implies authenticating the origin of the document and the authority of the officials who have affixed the signature, seal or stamp on the document by the Legalization Office of the Governor of the Falkland Islands. 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.
- 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 organ of registration (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 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands including the apostille certification and translation into the language of the document's state of destination.
Usually, processing the documents takes us 14 days.
