Legalisations

We talk a lot about “legalisation” on this website, but what does it actually mean?

The answer is in the word itself: it means making a document legal (= lawful) for use in a destination country. In any country with a functioning government, documents issued by the government itself will be lawful. In the Netherlands, for example, there are extensive systems in place that contain the signatures of authorised officials. This allows the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to verify that the person who has signed (from another government agency) is indeed authorised to do so. Legalisation is not necessarily required for documents for use in the Netherlands, because every document issued by the government is already legally valid. Legalisation is required for use abroad (outside the EU); foreign powers want to carry out their own checks through their embassy/consulate.

In fact, legalisation is nothing more than checking signatures. The Chamber of Commerce (KvK) checks commercial documents for content and then checks whether the person who signed is actually authorised to sign on behalf of his/her company. Next, someone from the Chamber of Commerce places their own signature and stamp on the document. The Chamber of Commerce’s stamp and signature are then checked by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which also places its own stamp and signature on the document. As the final link in this “chain of control”, the embassy/consulate of the final destination will check the signature of the ministry. The embassy/consulate will then also affix its own stamp and signature.

All in all, a lot of stamps and signatures are required to make such a document legally valid. Below are a number of countries that are popular when it comes to trade and export. On the relevant pages, you can read what the requirements are for each country and how the procedure works: