The Hague Apostille to study in Spain

If you are one of those who moves between countries, you have surely heard about apostille and you wonder what the Hague Apostille is.

If you want to simplify and speed up procedures that involve the presentation of official documents in other countries, keep reading.

What is the Hague Apostille?

The Hague Apostille is a simplified way to legalize a document internationally.

Apostille means to add a stub. The apostille is a note or annotation. Therefore, apostille is add an annotation to a document to attest to its authenticity. This annotation is added on a new page. This page is the Hague Apostille.

For the document that includes the apostille to be valid, it must have been issued by a country belonging to the Hague Convention. This Convention was signed on October 5, 1961 and with it the countries recognize all documents issued by the member countries that carry an apostille. From that date until today, the countries included in this Convention continue to expand, so to know if the Hague Apostille is applied in a specific country, you will have to consult the updated list of countries.

What is the Hague Apostille for?

Through a procedure The authenticity of the documents is guaranteed, expediting their circulation between the member countries of the Convention.

The procedure consists of adding an apostille to the document that you want to legalize that certifies its validity outside your country of origin. This way the documentation can circulate between all the participating countries without losing validity. In this way Procedures are streamlined and falsifications are avoided, both being great advantages.

In addition to the apostille, in some countries such as Spain, Panama or Ecuador a QR reader is added to allow verification of authenticity electronically. In this way, with a mobile phone it is possible to check whether the document you intend to present is valid.

With the Hague Apostille the requirement for diplomatic or consular legalization is eliminated of public documents and must be recognized by member countries when they carry an apostille.

This simple procedure can save a lot of time and money, being able to make a single certification of authenticity to use the documents in as many procedures as necessary.

The necessary documentation is among the Frequently asked questions about entering the University. With the Hague Apostille, documents that originate in a country other than the one in which you are going to study can be presented and they will be taken as valid.

What countries are included?

As we have commented previously, the countries that are part of the Hague Convention are continually being expanded by the inclusion of new members. The list of countries that are part of the Convention can be found on the internet.

As can be seen, it is a large catalog of countries, which increases the benefits of the Hague Apostille, since the apostille can be added in any of these countries and used as a completely legal document in the rest of them. Among these countries is Spain and others such as Germany, the United Kingdom or the United States.

How to request the Hague Apostille

It is possible to request the Hague Apostille in person or by mail, including the necessary documents and taking into account the specialties of some documents.

In‑person

1. Fill application official of the Ministry of Justice.
2. Go to one of the following public administrations:
   1. Central citizen service office of the Ministry of Justice.
   2. Territorial management of the Ministry of Justice and delegated offices of Ceuta and Melilla.
   3. Government secretariats of the superior courts of justice and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
3. Submit application along with documentation necessary in one of the public administrations.
4. Remove the document at that time.

By mail

1. Fill out application official of the Ministry of Justice.
2. Send application along with documentation necessary by mail to the following address:
   1. Government secretariats of the superior courts of justice and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
   2. Central citizen service office of the Ministry of Justice at Calle de la Bolsa, 8, 28012 Madrid, Spain
3. Within 10 business days, you will receive the document at the address indicated in the application.

Required Documentation

• ID of the interested party (National Identity Document).
• Application Legalization or Apostille officer of the Ministry of Justice.
• Certificate literal, in this case the one that is going to Legalize or Apostille.

Depending on the type of document to be apostilled, It will be necessary to go to a specific place to carry out the procedure.

• Administrative public documents, in the Central Citizen Service Office of the Ministry of Justice, Territorial Management of the Ministry of Justice and Delegated Offices of Ceuta and Melilla or Government Secretariats of the Superior Courts of Justice
• Notarial documents and private documents whose signatures have been legitimized before a notary, in the Notarial Colleges or those Notaries to whom they delegate.
• Public judicial documents issued by the national court and the supreme court, through the Government Secretaries of the respective courts or whomever they delegate.

Furthermore, some administrative documents require prior signature recognition in order to be apostilled. Some of these documents are:

• University Degrees.
• Official non-university academic titles.
• Documents from the Tax Agency.
• SEPE or Social Security documents.
• Documents of the Autonomous Communities.
• Documents from local entities.
• Consular documents.
• Certificates of Property, Commercial and Personal Property Registries.
• AENA documents.
• Bank documents.
• Documents issued by the State Security Forces and Bodies.
• DGT documents.

If you have more questions about the Hague Apostille, contact us.

The Hague Apostille is a procedure that guarantees the authenticity of a document so that it can circulate among all member countries of the Hague Convention. It can be requested in person or by mail and helps save time in the documentation procedures.

If you have more questions, we recommend that you ask our colleagues at LegalSpain and see their article on Hague Apostille.