Regulations for Legalisation of Public Documents

Issued pursuant to
Sections 6 and 12
of the Document Legalisation Law

I. General Provisions

1. This Regulation prescribes the procedures, by which a public document (hereinafter - document) shall be submitted for legalisation, the sample submission form, as well as the procedures by which a document shall be legalised or a decision shall be taken to refuse legalisation.

2. A document shall be legalised by the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (hereafter - Department) and diplomatic and consular representations of the Republic of Latvia abroad (hereafter - representation) if they have at the disposal thereof a sample signature of the authorised official who has signed, certified or legalised the document (hereafter - official), and, if necessary, a sample of the relevant seal or stamp.

3. The Department and a representation shall request sample signatures of officials and samples of seals or stamps necessary for legalisation from the institutions, which issue, confirm and legalise documents.

4. The Department shall legalise a document issued in the Republic of Latvia for use in a foreign country, which is a Member State to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation of Foreign Public Documents, with a certification inscription (Apostille) in English (Annex 1).

5. The Department or a representation shall legalise a document issued in the Republic of Latvia for use in a foreign country and a document issued in a foreign country for use in the Republic of Latvia, except documents, which have been exempted from the requirement of legalisation in accordance with the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation of Foreign Public Documents, with a legalisation inscription (Annex 2) and shall certify with the seal and signature of the official who legalises the document.

II. Submission of a Document for Legalisation and Receipt of the Legalised Document

6. For legalisation of a document a person shall submit the document to be legalised and a filled-in submission form to a representation or the Department (Annex 3), presenting a personal identification document or a document allowing to identify the person.

7. A document shall be legalised within two working days from the day of submitting the document and paying the State fee.

8. The legalised document shall be submitted to the submitter thereof. The legalised document may be issued to another person, if the submitter of the relevant document has indicated it in the section "Notes" of the submission referred to in Paragraph 6 of this Regulation or a relevant authorisation has been submitted.

III. Procedures for Legalisation of a Document

9. A derivative of a document issued in the Republic of Latvia (extract, true copy or copy), the correctness of which has been certified by an institution that according to regulatory enactments has the right to certify it, shall be legalised, if the Department or a representation has at the disposal thereof a sample of the signature of the official who certified the correctness of the relevant derivative.

10. The inscription of certification or legalisation shall be placed on the document. If there is no place on the document to be certified or legalised, the inscription of certification or legalisation shall be drawn up on a separate page, appended to the document and bound together with a string.

11. The registration number and date of certification or legalisation shall be indicated in the certification inscription and legalisation inscription.

12. The document to be legalised shall be registered in the electronic Document Legalisation System, indicating the information referred to in the submission, the number and date of certification and the given name, surname and status of the person who signed the document to be legalised. The Document Legalisation System shall be maintained by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

13. A decision on refusal to legalise a document shall be taken on the basis of Section 7 of the Document Legalisation Law. The referred to decision shall be communicated to the submitter of the document in writing in accordance with the procedures specified in the Administrative Procedure Law.

IV. Closing Provisions

14. Cabinet Regulation No. 720 of 8 September 2008, Regulations for Public Document Legalisation (Latvijas Vēstnesis, 2008, No. 143), is repealed.

15. This Regulation shall come into force on 1 April 2012.

Prime Minister V. Dombrovskis

Acting for the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Minister for Defence A. Pabriks

Annex 1
Cabinet Regulation No. 186
20 March 2012

Certification Inscription of a Public Document

Acting for the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Minister for Defence A. Pabriks

Annex 2
Cabinet Regulation No. 186
20 March 2012

Legalisation Inscription of a Public Document

Acting for the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Minister for Defence A. Pabriks

Annex 3
Cabinet Regulation No. 186
20 March 2012

Submission for Legalisation of a Public Document

(to be completed in a legible handwriting, in block letters or in electronic form)

Given name, surname (to be completed by a natural person)
Address (to be completed by a natural person)
Name (to be completed by a natural person)
Legal address (to be completed by a legal person)
Contact telephone
Number of documents to be legalised
Public Document
Name of the document
Must be legalised (mark as appropriate)	Original of the document Translation of the document Extract from, true copy or copy of the document
The purpose, for which the document is necessary
The state, in which the use of the document is intended
Notes

I agree that the data submitted is used legalisation process of documents

Internal notes

I confirm that I received the legalised document

Note. *The details of the document "date" and "signature" shall not be completed if the electronic document has been prepared in accordance with the regulatory enactments regarding the drawing up of electronic documents.

Acting for the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Minister for Defence A. Pabriks

Translation © 2012 Valsts valodas centrs (State Language Centre)