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I have been asked to have my documents legalized. What is involved in this process?
- In order to ensure your documents will be recognized by the government and/or school that you are applying to teach in, there are some basic steps you should undertake:
- Contact the closest consulate of the country where you will be teaching to determine what is required. The procedure may vary depending on the province in which you live and the consulate closest to you. Typically, if the foreign country is a signatory to the Hague Apostille Convention, a notarized copy of your document will have to be affixed with an apostille. Otherwise, the document copy may need to be legalized by that country's embassy or consulate for your jurisdiction.
- Ask your school director/recruiter (after ensuring they are legitimate) what steps you should take to apply for this visa. They will often be able to provide you with a detailed outline of the procedure/requirements.
- The documents will likely need to have one or more of the below processes:
- Apostille: This process applies to countries that are signatory to the Hague Apostille Convention. An apostille is a single, standardized certificate from a federal, state, or provincial government. It replaces the slower process of consular legalization or chain certification and verifies the authenticity of the signature on the document.
- Notarized: A member of the notary public signs a photocopy of your document attesting the signature/seal on the document is true and genuine. This process is the cheapest, fastest, and most common so you may want to have this done before applying for jobs. It is also a preliminary step for the next two processes.
- Authentication: A government official in the Department of State Office provides an official declaration that the signature of the notary public as true and genuine.
- Legalization: The embassy of the country where the document is to be presented declares and accepts the signature, seal, or stamp appearing on the document as genuine.
- The Global Affairs website gives information for residents of Canada so they can determine where to get an apostille, authentication and/or legalization, as well as the procedure and cost:
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