There are countless legal documents created every day. These documents can range from loan agreements, divorce decrees, powers of attorney, bills of sale and everything in between. With many of these transactions taking place between parties located all over the country, there needs to be a way to verify that the signatures are authentic. When the transaction involves moving financial assets among brokers, a system known as Medallion Signature Guarantee (MSG) stamps was developed wherein officers of designated banks can stamp and sign to authenticate the signature of an individual. For most other financial transactions the standard method of authentication is notarization. This method involves a trained individual appointed by their local government to verify the identity of a person and then stamp and sign the document to authenticate the signature. Almost all documents requiring signatures verification use these one of these two methods.

But what happens when a transaction or document needs to cross international borders? MSG and notary stamps are typically only recognized within the borders of the country in which they were signed. In order to address this issue, a system was developed at The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents or, as it is commonly, known the Apostille Convention. During this convention, held in The Netherlands in 1961, a system was developed allowing a member nation to authenticate a document and eliminate the need for it to be double authenticated by the receiving nation. This is done by affixing a stamp or printed form known as an apostille. 

• Process - Each nation that is a member state to the convention has competent authorities designated by their government to be authorized to affix apostilles to documents. For example, in The United States, the Secretary of State and their deputies in each state hold this designation. Each such competent authority holds records of all notaries public within their jurisdiction and can compare signatures prior to affixing the apostille.
• Member States - Currently, there are 115 member states who are parties to the convention. These member states include nations spread over most of the world with the exception of very limited representation in Africa, The Middle East and Southeast Asia. 
• Information requirements - The apostille requires 10 very specific pieces of information in a particular order. The most important requirement on the apostille is that, regardless of the originating nation, the name of the convention must be written in French as Convention de La Haye du 5 Octobre 1961. If not written in French, the apostille is invalid. 

As this system of authentication was developed to allow member states to eliminate the need for double authentication, nations that are not members cannot use the system. For example, Canada, which is not a party to the convention, must authenticate all foreign documents and then also have them authenticated by the receiving nation.

For more information on apostilles, contact a professional business such as ApostilleInt.