Chile Forum

Unlike most Common Law countries (i.e. the United States, Canada and United Kingdom), Latin American countries require extensive official document gathering, which includes legalizations through different government entities.

Traditionally, the Latin America region has had a culture of distrust when it comes to providing legal documentation for evidence in administrative processes. Thus, immigration processes require that all “fact support” documents (those offered as evidence for the application) be either legalized or apostilled through public agencies.
Some examples of “fact support” documents that will require legalization or apostille:

1. Birth and Marriage Certificates (as they are used to evidence spousal and parental relationship for dependant visa applications, and in some instances, to evidence the nationality or former nationality of a principal applicant);
2. Letters of Support (as they are used to evidence employment, transfer purpose, title and position to be taken);
3. Copies of University Degrees or other professional qualifications (as they evidence education and license qualifications);
4. Letters of Experience (as they evidence relevant work experience as to the duties to be performed).
5. Police Certificate of non-criminal record (to evidence good conduct).

NOTE: This list is not exhaustive, but rather an overview of the most frequently required documents.
In this memo we will review, in detail, the processes of legalization and apostille of these documents, as it is a basic need for all LATIN AMERICAN immigration processes.

A) Legalization

Legalization is a broad term; however, in the scope of document procurement it is defined as “the process of authenticating signatures as to the highest level possible.”
The best way to understand it is by an example:

Let’s say your process requires the legalization of an Orlando, Florida issued birth certificate so it can be used as parental evidence for a Costa Rica immigration application. In order to legalize this document these would be the steps to follow:

1. First, the provided document needs to be assessed. If the provided document is no longer valid (i.e. issued in old official formats, or the signatory public servant is no longer registered) there will be a need for obtaining a new document. If a new document is indeed needed, we may require from you a special release authorization so we can represent you before the authorities and obtain the document on your behalf.
2. Once the new birth certificate is obtained the document will need to be sent to the State Department with jurisdiction over the registry that issued the document. In the study case it would be the State Department of Florida located in Tallahassee.
The State Department will then authenticate (or legalize) the registrar’s signature located in the original birth certificate.
3. Then the document will be sent to the appropriate consulate with jurisdiction over the state department that certified the document (in the example case that we are discussing, the proper consulate would be the Costa Rica consulate located in Miami, Florida).
The appropriate consulate will then authenticate the State Department’s signature that authenticated (or legalized) the registrar’s signature located in the original birth certificate.
4. Then the document will be sent to the receiving country (in the case study: Costa Rica). Our local offices would then work directly with the government agency that has authority over the consulates (in Costa Rica this would be the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

The government agency will then authenticate the Consulate’s signature; which legalized the State Department’s signature; that authenticated the registrar’s signature located in the original birth certificate.

The whole process can take several weeks and thus the sooner it is started the faster in can be concluded. Please note that without proper legalized documents the visa applications in Latin America cannot be filed.

NOTARIZATION SPECIAL NOTE: Some other types of documents will require previous NOTARIZATION before they are sent to the state department [step two (2) as described above]. For instance, Letters of Support traditionally are not government issued documents; thus, a notary public will need to witness the signature of the document and certify that the signature is legitimate. This rule may also apply for Police Certifications of Non-criminal record.
Once the document is notarized the State Department will accept the petition for legalization.

Notary rules change from state to state and from country to country, the firm cannot be held accountable for notary public errors in their certifications. It is responsibility of the notary to certify the signature per the rules and guidelines of his or her jurisdiction.

NEW YORK SPECIAL RULE: In the State of New York an extra step is required: legalization by the County Clerk before we can take it to the state department.
INTERNATIONAL NOTE: Each country has own legalization procedures; thus, before the documents can reach to the consulate we must clear the special local rules. Most of the countries have something similar as the example above; however, we suggest that the assignee is prepared for specific delays depending on local country rules.