On July 5, 2021, the State Department of Jamaica introduced the apostille of local public documents for use in all 120 member countries of the “The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (the Apostille Convention)”. The documents are duly checked within five working days and certified with the stamp "Apostille".
Apostille is a stamp in the shape of a square, the size of which reaches 9x9 cm. This stamp contains the heading "Apostille" and the name of the Hague Convention in French (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961).
On November 2, 2020, Jamaica decided to accede to the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, “The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (the Apostille Convention)". The provisions of the Convention entered into force in Jamaica on July 3, 2021.
Foreign documents that are certified with an apostille are recognized in all member states of the Hague Convention, so no other form of certification such as consular legalization is required. This significantly reduces the cost and time required to certify documents.
Schmidt & Schmidt offers services such as consular legalization or the apostille for the certification of nationally recognized documents in accordance with the Hague Convention in more than 100 countries around the world.
