Legalise a public document

The External, Alliance and Cooperation Office (EACO) can authenticate eligible United Hampshire public documents for use in another nation.

What legalisation confirms

Legalisation checks the signature, seal, certification or issuing authority against an official record. It confirms the document’s origin, not whether everything stated in it is true.

Which documents can be legalised

EACO may consider documents issued by Government departments and other public authorities, including Parliament and the Judiciary where their own authorities permit the documents to be authenticated.

Check the service’s eligibility requirements before making a request. The authority that issued the document remains responsible for correcting its contents.

How to apply

An application should identify the document, issuing authority and what the document is needed for. EACO checks the evidence before deciding whether it can issue a certificate.

The public application route has not been confirmed as accepting requests. Use EACO’s published service information for the current position rather than sending documents to an unrelated address.

Apostille certificates

An EACO Apostille records a successful authentication decision for international use. It is not a certificate issued under the Hague Apostille Convention. Whether an external recipient accepts it depends on its own rules or an applicable agreement.

If an application is refused

EACO should explain the reason for refusing a request and how to seek review under its service procedure. For advice about visiting another nation, see Entry Advice.