Schmidt & Schmidt covers the full spectrum of legalization services for documents issued in Greenland.
Greenland is an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark, which is a member of the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents. However, the special declaration issued by the Danish authorities excludes Greenland from the agreement on the simplified legalization of foreign public documents.
Consular legalization is the process of authenticating or certifying a legal document so a foreign country's legal system will recognize it as with full legal effect that is carried out by the diplomatic or consular mission of the country in which the document is to be used.
Consular legalization is more complex, time-consuming and costly than the simpler apostille procedure. Consular legalization requires several pre-certifications before a public document can be certified at the embassy or consulate of the destination country.
It is a common requirement that the document has to be translated into the official language of the destination country before submission to the embassy. It is up to the diplomatic mission to decide about the authentication procedure.
Consular legalization includes confirmation of a document by the authorized bodies of the Ministry of Justice, divisions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then by the consulate (or consular section of the embassy) of the destination country. It must be remembered that the document will have legal force only in the territory of the country whose consulate stamp is on it.
Not only documents issued in Greenland are subject to consular legalization for their use in other countries, but also documents from other countries for their use in Greenland.
The following documents can be legalized:
- Extracts from the commercial register
- Certificates of civil status (certificates of birth, death, marriage and divorce)
- Education documents (school reports, certificates, diplomas)
- Court decisions
- Notarially certified copies of documents
- Notarially certified translations
- Further notarial documents (authorizations, last will, declarations)
Consular legalization of documents from Greenland for use abroad
The exact legalization process of documents from Greenland depends on the country you wish to use them in. Please feel free to contact us with your request and we will do our best to assist you!
Consular legalization of foreign documents for use in Greenland
Foreign documents must be legalized for use in Greenland as well. The representations and embassies of Denmark all over the world are in charge of this procedure.
On average, processing the documents takes up to 14 days.
