1.
An apostille is
an international certification that authenticates the origins of a public
document. (See The Hague Convention
Abolishing the Requirement for Legalization for Foreign Public Documents, Oct. 5,
1961, 33 U.S.T. 883, 527 U.N.T.S. 189 (the “Hague Convention”)).
2.
The purpose of
the Hague Convention is ...
... to facilitate the circulation of public documents issued by a country party to the Hague Convention that are to be used in another country also party to the Convention.
... to facilitate the circulation of public documents issued by a country party to the Hague Convention that are to be used in another country also party to the Convention.
3.
Public Documents
under the Hague Convention include: (a) documents emanating from an authority
or an official connected with the court or tribunals of the State, including
those emanating from a public prosecutor, a clerk of a court or a process
server; (b) administrative documents; (c) notarial acts; and (d) official
certificates which are placed on documents signed by persons in their private
capacity, such as official certificates recording the registration of a
document or the fact that it was in existence on a certain date and official
and notarial authentications of signatures.
4.
An apostille
does not certify the enforceability or authenticity of the underlying document
for which it was issued. When properly filled in, it will certify the
authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which the person signing the
document has acted and, where appropriate, the identity of the seal or stamp
which the document bears. An apostille is not valid for use in the country in which it was issued.
5.
A public
document can only be apostilled by the relevant competent authority of the
country that issued the document. The U.S. has three tiers of authorities
competent to issue the apostille certificate: (a) the U.S. Department of State
Authentication Office affixes apostilles to documents issued by Federal
agencies of the United States; (b) the Clerks and Deputy Clerks of the Federal
Courts of the United States are authorized to issue apostilles on documents
issued by those courts or, as an alternative, the U.S. Department of Justice
may authenticate the seal of the Federal court and the U.S. Department of State
Authentications Office will then place an apostille over that seal; and (c) public
documents issued by U.S. states, the District of Columbia and other U.S.
jurisdictions may be legalized with an apostille by designated authorities in
each jurisdiction, generally the state Secretary of State’s office. The California Secretary of State, for
instance, authenticates signatures only on documents issued in the State of
California signed by a notary public or the following public officials and
their deputies: County Clerks or Recorders, Court Administrators of the
Superior Court, Executive Clerks of the Superior Court, Officers whose
authority is not limited to any particular county, Executive Officers of the
Superior Court, Judges of the Superior Court, and State Officials. In Mexico,
federal public documents are apostilled by the Secretary of State and there are
32 competent authorities designated to issue apostilles for state documents.
Mauricio
Leon de la Barra is an international law attorney licensed to practice law in Mexico
and California, and has more than 15 years of experience representing clients
in cross-border business and real estate transactions and litigation involving international, U.S. and Mexican laws.