Apostille & Gold Seal Certification FAQs

In place of an Apostille, countries that do not participate in the Hague Convention may demand a copy of your Articles of Incorporation/Organization validated by a formal gold seal. Unlike the Apostille, you may still be required to take additional steps for your documents to be fully recognized.

Countries participating in the Hague Convention of 1961 require an Apostilled copy of your formation documents to open a bank account or engage in other business transactions. Apostilled documents are recognized without the need for additional certification or legalization by the embassy or consulate of the foreign country.

The purpose of legalization is to verify the origin of a legal or public document in order to legally use it in a country other than the one that issued it. The process involves obtaining a series of authentications by individual officials of both the country where the document was issued, and the embassy or consulate of the country where the document will be used. There are only two paths to accomplish this—Authentication and Apostille.