Legalisation of foreign public documents

Legalisation of foreign public documents

Legalisation of foreign public documents

Legalisation of a document is undertaken for official documents issued in one country to be recognised when presented in another country. It is a verification of the signature, the position of the signatory and the stamp in the document in cases of bearing the stamp applied on the document. The public documents issued in countries which are not member states of the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 “Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents” must be legalised before presenting them in Lithuania.

The Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to Ireland only accepts third country legalised documents for consular legalisation provided all the following criteria are applicable:

• the foreign national submitting the document must legally reside in the Republic of Ireland;
• the foreign national submits the documents at the Embassy in person for himself/herself or for members of the immediate family only (spouse, parents, children and adopted children);
• the document has been already legalised by the issuing country’s diplomatic mission in Dublin.

Documents that do not meet the requirements above should be submitted at the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania accredited to the issuing country, or personally to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania in Vilnius: https://keliauk.urm.lt/en/consular-services/legalisation

Requirements for documents when applying for legalisation:

• the document (original);
• valid passport or identity card of the person submitting the document for legalisation.
• if submitting on behalf of immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, or adopted child), the following additional documents are required: copy of the representative’s passport or ID card and proof of relationship: marriage certificate, birth certificate or adoption documents. All documents must be translated into English.
• a free-form request (an application letter including following information: country in which the legalised document is to be submitted and applicant’s contact details (e-mail address and telephone No);
• 20 EUR consular fee for legalisation of one document (bank card payment only).

Following official documents are accepted for legalisation:

• Issued by government or municipal institutions or officials, also by prosecutor, court official or person implementing court decisions
• Administrative documents
• Notarial acts
• Official confirmations of documents signed by natural persons
• Notarial transcripts of official documents

Documents must be orderly and readable. If the document consists of a few pages, they have to be affixed or sewn together. Each document is approved separately (e. g. diploma and its appendix are two (2) separate documents).