Chile Forum

The following is information about legalization of documents issued in the United States, to be used in Chile. I will outline the results of our research into this. Some of this is generally applicable information and some of it is particular to our requirements - we needed to legalize our incorporation papers for our non-profit corporation. We had incorporated in the state of Delaware and in order to use that for visa purposes we had to first get it legalized for use in Chile. This tutorial will include several posts to keep each part reasonably short.

Step 1: Contact the US Consulate in Santiago

We contacted the US Consulate in Santiago by email for information on how to get our incorporation papers legalized. They responded by sending us a Word document with general instructions. This was a helpful piece of information and I am pasting its contents below in entirety:

Authentication of Documents Issued in the United States

DISCLAIMER: THE INFORMATION IN THIS CIRCULAR RELATING TO THE LEGAL REQUIREMENTS OF SPECIFIC FOREIGN COUNTRIES IS PROVIDED FOR GENERAL INFORMATION ONLY. QUESTIONS INVOLVING INTERPRETATION OF SPECIFIC FOREIGN LAWS SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO APPROPRIATE AUTHORITIES. .

Documents issued in one country which need to be used in another country must be "authenticated" or "legalized" before they can be recognized as valid in the foreign country. This is a process in which various seals are placed on the document. Such documents range from powers of attorney, affidavits, birth, death and marriages records, incorporation papers, deeds, patent applications, home studies and other legal papers. The number and type of authentication certificates you will need to obtain depend on the nature of the document and whether or not the foreign country is a party to the multilateral treaty on "legalization" of documents, The Hague Legalization Convention.

Chile is not a party to the Convention. Therefore, you will have to obtain a series of certifications known as the "chain authentication method". This is literally a paper chase in which authorities will have to attest to the validity of a succession of seals beginning with your document and ending with the seal of the foreign embassy or consulate in the United States.

Chain Authentication

1. Foreign Embassy: This is the last step in the authentication chain. Usually, foreign embassies or consulates in the U.S. can only authenticate the seal of the U.S. Department of State. Check with the embassy or consulate of Chile (http://www.chile-usa.org/consular.htm ) on exact procedures for authentication.

2. U.S. Department of State Authentications Office: The office is located at 518 23rd St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20520, tel: (202) 647-5002. There is a fee for each authentication payable in the form of a check drawn on a U.S. bank or money order made payable to the Department of State. For additional information, call the Federal Information Center: 1-800-688-9889, and choose option 6 after you press 1 for touch tone phones or visit http://www.state.gov/m/a/auth/. Walk-in service is available from the Authentications Office from 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Monday-Friday, except holidays. Walk-in service is limited to 15 documents per person per day (documents can be multiple pages). Processing time for authentication requests sent by mail is 5 working days or less.

3. Documents Issued by Federal Courts: Documents issued under the seal of a federal court should be sent to Justice Management Division, Security Program Staff, Physical Security Office, 9th and Pennsylvania Avenue, Room 6531, Washington, D.C. 20530, tel: (202) 514-2314 or 514-4667 for the preliminary authentication. Then forward the document(s) to the U.S. Department of State, Authentications Office as explained above. Finally, send the documents to the foreign embassy or consulate in the United States.

4. Documents Issued by Federal Agencies: Documents issued under the seal of a federal agency can be authenticated by the U.S. Department of State Authentications Office following the instructions above. Then send the documents to the foreign embassy or consulate in the United States as explained above.

5. State Documents: State documents such as documents originating with a state court or agency (birth, death, marriage, etc.) must be authenticated by the appropriate office in the state Secretary of State's office (listed below). The document may then be authenticated by the U.S. Department of State Authentications Office as explained above. The document may then be authenticated by the foreign embassy or consulate in the United States following the instructions above.

6. Notarized Documents: The procedure for authenticating documents executed before a notary public such as affidavits or acknowledgments varies from state to state. It is advisable to contact the state authentication authority to learn what steps are necessary between the notary's seal and the state Secretary of State's seal. In some states, this requires contacting the clerk of the court of the county where the notary is licensed, and obtaining an authentication of the notary's seal. The state Secretary of State's office can then authenticate the seal of the clerk of the county court. After the seal of the state Secretary of State or comparable authority listed below is on the document, it may be authenticated by the U.S. Department of State Authentications Office. The final step is to obtain the seal of the foreign embassy or consulate in the United States following the instructions above.

Using the Internet: Many of the judicial assistance flyers are also available on the Internet via the Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs home page under Judicial Assistance http://travel.state.gov/law/info/judici ... l_702.html .

STEP 2: Filling in the details for the US part of the process

From the above information, the US part of the legalization process was clear for us. Since our incorporation papers come under the category of "State Documents", the process was:

1. Get certification of our incorporation documents from the Delaware Division of Corporations

• We called up the Delaware Division of Corporations (1-302-739-3073) and found out that apart from the certification by the Delaware Secretary of State, the documents also require to have the gold seal of the state of Delaware. Both these are done by the Delaware Division of Corporations.
• Our application for these certified copies could be faxed in to them. They have various expediting options and we were able to have it processed in one day and mailed out to a friend in the US.
• The faxed in request needs to state which documents we need, which country they are to be used in, to what address they should be mailed out and the credit card information for billing. They charged $30 per document to be certified plus $2 per page plus any expediting fees if chosen.

2. Then get them authenticated by the US Department of State in Washington DC

• Before the US Department of State will authenticate "State documents", they require that they have the certification of the respective state as outlined in the previous step.
• Once that is done, documents can be mailed in to the Department of State in Washington DC for authentication, or they can be taken there in person. It's a 5-day processing delay for mailed-in documents versus a while-you-wait processing if you take them there in person.
• It's $8 per document to be authenticated, with a maximum of 15 documents per application. You need to include a cover letter stating what the documents are, for what purpose they will be used and in what country they will be used.
• You can have a friend submit the documents for authentication on your behalf.
• We called up the Federal Information Center at 1-800-688-9889 and got all the clarity and help we needed on the requirements.

3. Then take the documents to the Chilean Consulate to have the Consul authenticate the seal of the State Department

• Once the documents have been authenticated by the US Department of State, they need to be taken to the Chilean Consulate for authentication by the Consul
• Documents can be mailed in or taken there in person. The New York Consulate of Chile website has some information on this here: http://www.chileny.com/00eng_tramites.html
• They have a 2-day processing time and charge $12 per document. Provide a cover letter along with the documents.
• The documents can be sent in by anyone. If drop-off and pickup is done in person (as opposed to having the documents mailed out) then anybody can pick them up by handing in the receipt given at the time of drop-off.

STEP 3: FILLING IN THE DETAILS FOR THE CHILE PART OF THE PROCESS

• Once the documents have been authenticated by a Chilean Consulate in the United States, the documents have to be sent to Santiago, Chile. Here, we must present them or certification of Consul's signature, in the Consular Department (section “Legalization”) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores), located at 1320 AGUSTINAS Street, 1° Floor, Downtown Santiago. It's just a question of getting in line at that office and having them authenticated while you wait. I think the "La Moneda" metro stop is the nearest one from where it's walkable.
• Once these guys certify the Consul's signature, the document is now legal in Chile.
• However, in our case we wanted to use it for the purpose of visa applications. So on checking with the Extranjeria, we were told that the documents need to be officially translated before they can be used. This official translation also happens in the same office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores). They take about a month to do the translation, and is the only place in Chile where the official translation can be done. We haven't got to that step yet, but my understanding is that they create a new Spanish version of the documents and place all the necessary seals on it.

And that's it. The documents are now ready to be used in Chile. As easy as apple-pie!

Nice thread.

Here is an article published on our site Spencer Global we wrote sometime ago, that explains a bit more about what Legalization is a replacement for and how it works: http://www.spencerglobal.com/chile-law/ ... orney.html

Essentially the legalized document is trying to replace what native Chilean documents are already: public records. There is a vast system of public records, registration, publication, and notarization in Chile and almost all official documents in Chile to be legal, including most private contracts between individuals, must be in a public record (there are a few exceptions) to be valid.

O.k. that is most of the theory, let me throw in a few more tips on the practice.

I would first like to super underline that the post above are the procedures for the U.S. only. Each country has its own set of bureaucratic hoops, especially if it is a country that does not even have a Chilean consulate or the consulate might be very poorly staffed or organized. Developing countries tend to fall in to this category. Europe also tends to have hit or miss Chilean consulates in each country. It is very similar to not every State in the U.S. has a consulate. You need to find the one that has the jurisdiction over the area where the document was generated. In almost every case, most legalization can be done by mail. They just take longer, and can be a bit more prone to errors creeping in but for the most part is not a problem.

Case in point, Canada is complete pain of a bureaucracy that seems to make Chile look well organized and efficient. In Canada, hire a company that specializes in legalization. Expect each document to cost about $500 to $1,000 US with government fees, couriers, mail services, and so on.

The Chilean consulate that will have jurisdiction over the legalization will be the one closest to where the document originated from. So, If the document is generated in Florida, it would be the Miami consulate.
As a rule, try to stay away from the New York consulate unless you absolutely have to, because although we have never had them make any major errors in documents they are really busy because of all the international banking documents they must handle. For example, an appointment to sign a POA can be a couple of weeks to get. Washington on the other hand seems to be fairly well staffed.

When doing any legalization, power of attorney, or other document when dealing with the consulates make sure all the stamps appear in the correct places, and the chain of authority is complete. We have our clients or whoever is picking them up on the ground, fax us all pages, front and back, before mailing. Even blank pages are important, because something might be missing from that blank page. Much easier to simply walk back in to the consulate and have them add a missing stamp or signature, then to send a package on a round trip World tour or worse get off the airplane in Chile and discover your missing a stamp.

However, in our case we wanted to use it for the purpose of visa applications. So on checking with the Extranjeria, we were told that the documents need to be officially translated before they can be used. This official translation also happens in the same office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores). They take about a month to do the translation, and is the only place in Chile where the official translation can be done. We haven't got to that step yet, but my understanding is that they create a new Spanish version of the documents and place all the necessary seals on it.

This is not strictly true. In fact, if you are even required to translate them at all will be a function of the office and the particular person that is handling your application (this holds for other purposes also, such as buying real estate, banks, etc). The foreign affairs ministry is not the only official translators, with a few exceptions that depend on the purpose of the document. We for example, have a certified translator on staff and thus we translate all of our own documents for immigration. There is however a certified translators stamp issued by the government. Not just anyone can do it. Most of the time we are never even asked to translate documents, they will simply accept an unofficial translation, or even an accompanying letter in Spanish simple explaining what they are. Typically if you are required to have them translated, only the most important core documents are translated.

Overall, when dealing with bureaucracy in Chile (not just immigration), we find submitting way too much documentation is always better. Fundamentally, the bureaucrat in front of you and the ones that will follow above him that are making the decisions wants to make sure they covered themselves and did their job. If you hand in one paper, they are going to ask for 50 others. If you hand 50, they likly will not read any of them completely. Relieve their stress, and they will relieve your stress.

Again, when in doubt just ask them. There are very few bureaucrats in Chile of any sort that are in a hurry.

Before everyone gets bent out of shape, I just want to say this will all really really depends on who you are talking to at immigration, how you are applying, from where the documents came from, and what local office you are using. This is not meant to be a hasty generalization regarding the functions of immigration, nor should you draw one based on simply one person's experience with immigration. Every application is different, every document is different, and every Chilean consulate is different.

We do a lot of legalization work, at least a half dozen documents a week or more all around the World, and even the same type of document, from the same state or country, with the same consulate can often be very different each time we do it.

I guess, the best advice I could give, like everything in Chile, is take your time, be patient, don't rush, and plan ahead.

Hi
During my stay here in Chile since last March what I have learned from experience(s) that though the bureaucratic processes (such as legalization) seem to be quite complicated, there is always an option that is quite simple and straight forward. I will share my experience with legalization here. Since I came here from UK, I was not able to legalize my educational degrees/certificates (Doctoral, Masters, etc.) in the Chilean Consulate in India, where I had obtained these degrees, as per the requirements of the job in the Universidad de Chile. Going back to India to get legalization done was the last option, as I could not find any agency also who could do this work for me in India, although they do exist in other parts of the world and may exist here as well, but not to my knowledge at least. So, I thought of a work around, just to give it a try and to avoid going to India to do legalization work. I went to my (Indian) embassy and got all the photocopies of degrees/certificates attested and went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores) of Chile, located at 1320 Agustinas and got into the line at that office fingers crossed, mumbling silent prayers. Finally my turn came up and then it took not even a minute to get them stamped (legalized) for any purpose in Chile. Oh, what a big relief it was for me. Thanks to the heavens. For some it might look like an exception/aberration, but I have done this procedure more than once, so I am sure it is a standard (but simple) way for legalization, although little known or just unknown to people. After your document getting stamped at the above mentioned office, it does not matter how many earlier stamps you had got on your document in order to get this final stamp and what matters is this ultimate stamp.
Thanks for your time in reading this post and I hope it helps you in some way.

Sometimes it is that simple, and again it depends on the document and your final audience. A diploma is typically the sort of document that people do not even really request legalization for most purposes in Chile, and there are a lot of documents that can be issued through the consulates.

I would not for example try that with a power of attorney for a property sale or other sorts of serious documents (even if they are apparently accepted) that have mandatory conditions that must be met by law. At best things like contracts and other official documents you sign based on them would be simply invalid and could result in a law suit at some point. In the worst case scenario you could find yourself in jail. Be very careful about what corners you cut.

admin wrote:Sometimes it is that simple, and again it depends on the document and your final audience. A diploma is typically the sort of document that people do not even really request legalization for most purposes in Chile, and there are a lot of documents that can be issued through the consulates.

I had used the degrees legalized in this way on two occasions:

1) To change my visa category from Tourist to Temporaria under the category "PROFESSIONAL OR TECHNICAL INDIVIDUALS WHO WORK ON A FEE BASIS OR ON A CONTRACT BASIS" I had submitted the legalized copy of my Ph.D. and Masters Degrees.
2) For RECONOCIMIENTO of my degrees by Unvversidad de Chile. To work in Universidad de Chile the degrees obtained abroad need to be submitted for RECONOCIMIENTO and for that purpose the degrees have to be legalized in the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores) of Chile with an official translation of the degrees (in my case they were in English) to Spanish from the same office before submitting them for this purpose.

admin wrote:I would not for example try that with a power of attorney for a property sale or other sorts of serious documents (even if they are apparently accepted) that have mandatory conditions that must be met by law. At best things like contracts and other official documents you sign based on them would be simply invalid and could result in a law suit at some point. In the worst case scenario you could find yourself in jail. Be very careful about what corners you cut.

I do understand that Chile not being the signatory of The Hague convention for Apostille, even the properly apostilled documents (following n number of steps involved in it) need to be legalized commencing the procedure from one's country of origin involving Chilean Embassy/Consulate, etc. But, I certainly believe that the documents legalized in such a way cannot (will never) find anyone in jail for sure and in the worst case it might not be accepted. The comment IMHO was quite sarcastic.

PS:
Also the people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores) did not put the stamp of legalization blindly, as if I got away with them. In fact, we exchanged some pleasantries as well about the embassy official who had attested the documents. So, the people knew what they were doing.

First that is not intended to be taken as sarcastic in anyway. My apologies. We do this for a living. Just because some secretary puts a stamp on document does not make it legal. If you were to buy piece of property or start company, and it turned out that you did not follow the full legalization process or intentionally attempted to circumvent that process, you could very well find your self in jail. A couple that come to mind that would be very easy to find yourself in stepping off in to legal no no land would be criminal charges of things like fraud and tax evasion.

Here is nice practical hypothetical to illustrate the problem. Imagine you skipped some steps with legalizing a power of attorney or signing a property contract and a legal dispute in court arises. Imagine the opposing side digs up that fact, or finds that you missed a stamp? The whole validity of the contract or case could be undermined by that.

In your personal situation I could see a employment contract dispute ending up in court, and it being invalidated because your diploma was not properly legalized

Throw in the fact that legalization process is different for each and every country, each and every document, each and every situation. So do not be so flipped about claiming you are an authority about legal advice in Chile, especially on this forum. I have many QUALIFIED Chilean attorneys that work for me. I am not making this up. We legalize hundreds of documents a year from all over the World, for thousands of different purposes.
.
If that answer is not sufficiently authoritative for you, how about that I own, operate, and will ban you from this forum if I deem your postings to be dangerous to expat community and in direct violation of our TOS agreement (i.e. providing legal advice on this forum).

Quick question:
Do legalizations expire?

Meaning, if I go ahead and get the legalizations started now(birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc) and then don't get to chile and apply for temporary residency in the next year or so, will they cease to be usable?

admin wrote:Sometimes it is that simple, and again it depends on the document and your final audience. A diploma is typically the sort of document that people do not even really request legalization for most purposes in Chile, and there are a lot of documents that can be issued through the consulates.

I had used the degrees legalized in this way on two occasions:

1) To change my visa category from Tourist to Temporaria under the category "PROFESSIONAL OR TECHNICAL INDIVIDUALS WHO WORK ON A FEE BASIS OR ON A CONTRACT BASIS" I had submitted the legalized copy of my Ph.D. and Masters Degrees.
2) For RECONOCIMIENTO of my degrees by Unvversidad de Chile. To work in Universidad de Chile the degrees obtained abroad need to be submitted for RECONOCIMIENTO and for that purpose the degrees have to be legalized in the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores) of Chile with an official translation of the degrees (in my case they were in English) to Spanish from the same office before submitting them for this purpose.

admin wrote:I would not for example try that with a power of attorney for a property sale or other sorts of serious documents (even if they are apparently accepted) that have mandatory conditions that must be met by law. At best things like contracts and other official documents you sign based on them would be simply invalid and could result in a law suit at some point. In the worst case scenario you could find yourself in jail. Be very careful about what corners you cut.

I do understand that Chile not being the signatory of The Hague convention for Apostille, even the properly apostilled documents (following n number of steps involved in it) need to be legalized commencing the procedure from one's country of origin involving Chilean Embassy/Consulate, etc. But, I certainly believe that the documents legalized in such a way cannot (will never) find anyone in jail for sure and in the worst case it might not be accepted. The comment IMHO was quite sarcastic.

PS:
Also the people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores) did not put the stamp of legalization blindly, as if I got away with them. In fact, we exchanged some pleasantries as well about the embassy official who had attested the documents. So, the people knew what they were doing.

First that is not intended to be taken as sarcastic in anyway. My apologies. We do this for a living. Just because some secretary puts a stamp on document does not make it legal. If you were to buy piece of property or start company, and it turned out that you did not follow the full legalization process or intentionally attempted to circumvent that process, you could very well find your self in jail. A couple that come to mind that would be very easy to find yourself in stepping off in to legal no no land would be criminal charges of things like fraud and tax evasion.

Here is nice practical hypothetical to illustrate the problem. Imagine you skipped some steps with legalizing a power of attorney or signing a property contract and a legal dispute in court arises. Imagine the opposing side digs up that fact, or finds that you missed a stamp? The whole validity of the contract or case could be undermined by that.

In your personal situation I could see a employment contract dispute ending up in court, and it being invalidated because your diploma was not properly legalized

Throw in the fact that legalization process is different for each and every country, each and every document, each and every situation. So do not be so flipped about claiming you are an authority about legal advice in Chile, especially on this forum. I have many QUALIFIED Chilean attorneys that work for me. I am not making this up. We legalize hundreds of documents a year from all over the World, for thousands of different purposes.
.
If that answer is not sufficiently authoritative for you, how about that I own, operate, and will ban you from this forum if I deem your postings to be dangerous to expat community and in direct violation of our TOS agreement (i.e. providing legal advice on this forum).

xxx

You see?

Now that was how to give useful advice without being smart ass . El P, your the master.

I am in the middle of the document legalization circus and have a couple of questions. I have the following documents currently at the state level.

1. Birth certificate
2. Marriage license
3. Certified document from Oregon corporation division stating that the company I work for currently exists and is reputable.
4. Six year work contract with that company for $25k per year plus yearly bonus.

We currently have $30k in our bank account and will probably add $10-20 more over the next 3 months before we leave for Chile.

I am doing two complete sets of everything in case the first set gets lost during the US national or Chilean certification process.

My wife is dual citizen (Thai/US) and has a current passport for both countries (she has resided in the US for the last 20 years), unfortunately the Thai bureaucracy has lost her birth certificate (she does have a current citizenship card), so how would we get her temporary residence visa? Or would the easiest way be to just attach her residence to mine since we are married? She will not be working in Chile as keeping me out of trouble has become a full time job for her.

Do I need to do any certification of my bank statement or get a letter of recommendation from my bank?

Are there any other loose ends that need to be addressed during this process?

Will there be any problems getting Thai Curry paste and spices through customs?