Brexit has brought about a lot of changes to our relationship with the European Union and its member-states. Due to this, the document legalisation process, previously simplified, has changed once again. Let us explain how.
In an effort to make the legalisation process as accessible and free of red tape as possible, the EU Commission adopted the Regulation of Public Documents (Regulation 2016/1191) in July 2016. This regulation meant that a few steps of the usual procedure under the Hague Convention of 1961 became unnecessary. The most important change related to the need for document legalisation by the foreign affairs branch of your government. Indeed, one of the main points of the regulation states that “Public documents (for example, a birth certificate, a marriage notarial act, a judgment) and their certified copies issued by the authorities of an EU country must be accepted as authentic by the authorities of another EU country without the need of an authenticity stamp (i.e. the apostille)” [1]. Therefore, since 2016, member-states have enjoyed a more fuss-free legalisation process.
The Regulation’s other provisions include that:
- There is no longer an obligation to produce both the original document and its certified copy. A certified copy is valid on its own,
- There is no longer an obligation to produce a translation of your public document. If the document is not in the language of the receiving country, you may add a multilingual standard form to the document.
However, since the United Kingdom left the European Union on December 31st 2020, these regulations no longer apply. This means that that European countries may now ask for documents from the UK to be apostilled. The United Kingdom is still a part of the Hague convention, meaning that the legalisation process is still rather straightforward. We have laid it out in our Apostille article.
Still need assistance with document legalisation? Contact us to discuss your requirements with a member of our apostille team.
[1] Source: European E-Justice Portal, Regulation on Public Documents