Notary Services

Notaries are primarily concerned with the authentication and certification of signatures, authority, and capacity relating to documents for use abroad.

The most common tasks include:

• Preparing and authenticating powers of attorney for use overseas
• Dealing with purchase or sale of land and property abroad
• Authenticating foreign wills and providing documents to deal with the administration of the estates of people who are abroad, or owning property abroad
• Authenticating personal documents and information for immigration or emigration purposes, or to apply to marry or to work abroad, such as education or professional qualifications or declarations of freedom to marry
• Authenticating company and business documents and transactions or providing certificates as to the status of a company or the identity of its directors

Legalisation is the process by which the signature and seal of the Notary are authenticated by the Foreign Office and/or the Embassy or Consulate of the country in which the document is to be used. This is generally required by countries who are signatories to the Hague Convention. Legalisation requirements are determined by the country where the document is going to be relied upon, often referred to as the receiving jurisdiction, not by the UK government.

Documents going to countries which are, or have been, part of the British Commonwealth seldom need legalisation nor, at present, do documents going to many parts of the United States.

Many countries require only one certificate from the Foreign Office called an Apostille. Some countries want the Apostille from the Foreign Office and a further certificate from their own Embassy. There are other procedures that apply only to a few countries, and there can be problems if a document is to be used in a country with which the United Kingdom does not have diplomatic relations.