Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office — key facts
Jurisdiction: You cannot get documents issued outside the UK legalised using this service - get them legalised in the country they were issued.
Authentication: The Legalisation Office will check the document and see if any signatures, stamps or seals match their own records. If they do match, they’ll legalise the document by attaching an ‘apostille’ (stamped official certificate).
Legalization chain: You can get certain official UK documents ‘legalised’ by submitting them to the Legalisation Office.
Jurisdiction: You might need to do this if an official in another country has asked you to provide a UK document and they have said it must be legalised.
Jurisdiction: You cannot get documents issued outside the UK legalised using this service - get them legalised in the country they were issued.
Authentication: The Legalisation Office will check the document and see if any signatures, stamps or seals match their own records. If they do match, they’ll legalise the document by attaching an ‘apostille’ (stamped official certificate).
Legalization chain: You can get certain official UK documents ‘legalised’ by submitting them to the Legalisation Office.
Jurisdiction: You might need to do this if an official in another country has asked you to provide a UK document and they have said it must be legalised.