Schmidt & Schmidt offers the legalization of documents from Tonga by apostille.
Tonga acceded to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in 1965 as an overseas department of the United Kingdom. On June 4, 1970, the Convention entered into force for the Kingdom of Tonga as an independent state.
Responsible for issuing the apostille in Tonga is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Citizenship.
The right to certify documents with an apostille is also delegated to a number of diplomatic missions of Tonga:
- to the High Commissioner of Tonga in Great Britain
- to the US Embassy and Tonga's permanent mission in the United Nations
- to the Tongan Embassy in China
- to the High Commissioner of Tonga in New Zealand
- General Consulate of Tonga in the United States (San Francisco)
- Tonga Consulate in the United States (Honolulu)
- General Consulate of Tonga in Australia
The process of legalization in Tonga includes 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 decisions
- 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.)
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 Tonga including apostille and translation.
On average, processing the documents takes up to 14 days.
