Do you need an apostille? Then let us assist you with this quickly and efficiently. Bring the document to our office so that we can stamp it with an apostille. Examples are provided below of documents that can be issued with an apostille and also how these should be formulated. The most common documents that need an apostille are population registration certificates (personbevis), documents that have been legalised by another Notary Public and also documents from the Swedish Companies Registration Office.
According to an international agreement, an apostille can be issued for documents that need to be produced in another country covered by the Convention. An apostille stamp exempts a document from all other forms of attestation. This means that the approval of a foreign ambassador is not normally required.
Only Notaries Public have been able to issue apostilles in Sweden since 1 January 2005.
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Although there are a number of different international conventions referred to as the ‘Hague Convention’, the convention applicable for ‘apostilles’ is the Apostille Convention (The Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents). This Convention was adopted in 1961 and entered into force on 24 January 1965. Sweden acceded to the Convention on 1 May 1999. The Convention was introduced to facilitate and simplify the authentication of public documents between countries by replacing the formerly complicated legalisation process. The issuing of an apostille is intended to replace the preceding lengthier and more complicated chain of legalisations. This system simplifies the presentation and use of Swedish documents abroad considerably, benefiting both private individuals and businesses.
The Convention applies to public documents that have been executed in one Contracting State and which have to be produced in another Contracting State. The term ‘public document’ covers a broad category of documents to enable the authentication of as many kinds of documents as possible.
When the Convention was established, there was a broad consensus that legalisation should be abolished for all documents other than those signed by private individuals. Consequently, all documents executed by a public authority or by a person acting in an official capacity are encompassed by the Convention. Documents that private individuals need to sign must first be legalised by a Notary Public before another Notary Public can furnish the document with an apostille.
What an apostille does is certify that the person who signed the document is actually empowered to execute the document concerned. Apostilles are consequently important to prevent the use of forged signatures abroad. Without the control mechanism that the apostille provides, the risk of document forgery would undermine the credibility of the system in relation to other States and the public.
Examples of documents for which an apostille may be issued immediately:
- Documents issued by government authorities (e.g., the Swedish Tax Agency, the Swedish Companies Registration Office, the Swedish Road Administration, the Medical Products Agency and the National Board of Health and Welfare)
- Register extracts (e.g., population registration certificates and extracts from the criminal records)
- Court documents (e.g., a divorce issued by a District Court)
- Grades/certificates from universities, higher education institutions, municipal schools (not independent schools)
- Documents signed by a Notary Public
- Documents signed by a Swedish Chamber of Commerce
- Translations by an authorised translator (appointed by the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency)
- Extracts from birth and marriage records
Each document issued with an apostille must be furnished with the following:
- The original stamp of the issuing authority, clearly stating the name of the authority
- The signature and printed name of the person who issued the stamp for the document
- The position of the person at the authority