Foreign Ministry Announces Agreement to Abolish Legalization of Foreign Public Documents

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the Dominican Republic’s accession to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents.

The Foreign Ministry statement explained that the “apostille” stamp is the certificate that guarantees the authenticity of the signature, …

The convention seeks to eliminate the requirement to legalize public documents authorized in the territory of a participating State, requiring that they must be presented in the territory of the other State which is party to the convention, thus abolishing the previous formalities such as the legalization of foreign ministers of the country where it will be in effect and only admit documents with the “apostille” stamp, according to the President’s Office of Information, Press and Publicity.

The Foreign Ministry statement explained that the “apostille” stamp is the certificate that guarantees the authenticity of the signature, the capacity of the person signing the document, placed by the official designated authority of the country that produced it and whose format and information will be equal for all signatory countries.

The Ministry added that the government of the Dominican Republic, in compliance with Article 6 of the agreement, designated the Legalization of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the official authority to issue the apostille stamp.

The convention, of which the Dominican Republic is a signatory, will apply to those documents that emanate from State institutions, public and private higher education centers, official certificates of private papers, official legalizations and notarized signatures.

The Ministry’s declaration notes that the agreement does not apply to documents issued by diplomatic and consular agents, administrative documents that refer directly to a commercial or customs operation nor to documents that are intended to be used in countries that are not part of the agreement.

“In such cases, these documents will be legalized in accordance with the normal procedures required by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” according to the statement.

The Foreign Ministry explained that the procedure for obtaining an “apostille” stamp on documents authorized in the Dominican Republic is the legalization of documents that emanate from state and educational institutions; those authenticated by a Notary Public must have the legalization of the Attorney General of the Nation, at a cost of 620 pesos.

Those countries where the agreement is in effect are Albania, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, China, Colombia, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Venezuela and Spain.

The countries where the accord is not in effect are Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands.