Babylon Consult

Apostilles

Starting with the 16^th of March, 2001, Romania joined the Hague Convention, dated October 5^th, 1961, regarding the suppresion of super-legalization of foreign official documents. Before joining the Convention, the official documents had to undergo a complicated procedure, with the documents legalized only by the consulates of the states where the documents were necessary, with the prior aplication of a visa from the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice. The apostilles simplified the procedure, through the application of a rubber stamp (the Hague Apostille) on the documents, thus internationaly autenticating/legalizing them.

Since the 1^st of November, 2004, the appostile/super-legalization procedure for Romanian documents passed in the competence of the Prefects' Bureaus and the Courts of Apeal, these being the only Romanian authorities authorized to issue the apostilles.

In fact, the apostille is a square rubber stamp (9cm per side), identical in all the Hague Convention member states, and is directly applied on the documents being legalized, or on an extension to the document.

The Hague Apostille (all these stamps, indifferent of the country aplying them, have the following title: Apostille - Convention de la Haye du 5 Octobre 1961)

For international recognition, the identification documents, that is the birth and marriage certificates, after the apostille is applied by the Prefect's Bureau (in Romania) are translated into the target language by an authorized translator, legalized by a notary public, and in the end the legalized translation is super-legalized with an apostille by the competent Court of Justice.