Legalisation & Attestation

We are legalisation experts based in the heart of Canary Wharf's business district in East London. We attest and legalise documents for use in foreign jurisdictions and have clients from all over the world that use our service. legalisation is a seal or stamp sometimes referred to as an apostille, issued by a UK public official on a document confirming its authenticity by the UK government or the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

Legalisation Charges

We offer fixed rates for legalising a document from start to end.

Premium Service

The Legalisation Process

Legalisation of a document in the UK is a lengthy and relatively expensive process. It is a 3 step process this in summary is how it works:

• A Solicitor or Notary Attests (witnesses) a document; then
• The FCO legalises the attested document by endorsing it with its seal and signature; and finally,
• The respective Embassy’s Consulate Section legalises the document.

Step1: Notarisation/Attestation

Some documents must be notarised (check with country requirements) by a notary solicitor to be recognised outside the UK otherwise it can be attested by a solicitor. Once notorised or attested, the document must then be legalised at the FCO.

Step 2: FCO Legalisation Service

We offer two packages under our UK legalisation service:

a) Next Day Legalisation Service

We run a premium legalisation service via the Foreign Commonwealth Office for businesses, or private clients who may need a document to be legalised swiftly. Once we have the documents, we can authenticate your documents and have them legalised on the same day at the FCO and then legalised at the relevant embassy.

b) Standard Legalisation Service

If there is no urgent need for documents to be legalised within the same day, we offer a standard service, which takes between 3-5 days for the FCO to legalise once the documents has been attested or notorised. The costs are slightly cheaper here as the FCO charges are £35 per document for the standard service plus £5.50 for postage.

Step 3: Embassy Apostille in the UK

Most jurisdictions will not accept a document unless in addition to steps 1&2 it has been legalised by their own Embassy's Consulate in the UK (e.g. UAE Embassy for use in a Emirate state like Dubai). This the final step in the legalisation process. All Embassies charge for this service and the costs vary from embassy to embassy. 

Contact Legalisation Lawyers, London

For more information on our Legalisation and Attestation Solicitors contact our dedicated team for a no-obligation discussion on your specific circumstances. Call to speak to one of expert solicitors on 0203 540 6340. Alternatively, email us on contactus@merchistonsolicitors.co.uk or complete our online enquiry form.