Consular legalisation for customers who live and work in Switzerland
DocsBase Apostille & Consular Legalisation Services provides a full range of legalisation services for customers who live and work and in Switzerland, and who have documents issued from Switzerland which they require for use elsewhere. Specific legalisation requirements vary from country to country, and if your document is intended for use in a country which is not a member of the Hague Convention, additional Consular legalisation is required.
Particularities of the legalisation process in Switzerland
Switzerland is a federal state, meaning that a document originating from a specific canton has to undergo the first layer of legalisation in that canton. As an example, if you have a document issued in Zurich, that document would have to be legalised by Notary and the local Chamber of Commerce in Zurich. The same applies for documents issued in other cantons. Once that initial layer of certification has been completed, Apostille certification can then be carried out in Bern or Geneva. The Apostille certification verifies the signature of the public official who signed an official document, as well as the signatory’s position or designation. It is worth noting that the Apostille certification does not verify the actual contents of the document.
DocsBase Apostille & Consular Legalisation Services have an office is Switzerland which can handle all these steps for you by our inhouse experts, and to make matters easier we also have our own inhouse courier company who manages the hand delivery of all documents between the various legalisation entities. Once the Apostille certification has been completed, certain countries who are not members of the Hague Convention require a third level of legalisation is required which is called Consular legalisation. Although you may already have an Apostille certification issued in Switzerland, documents intended for use in these countries will all require Consular legalisation through their Embassies. DocsBase Apostille & Consular Legalisation Services are experts in Consular legalisation and are delighted to offer a comprehensive legalisation service to all of our private and corporate Swiss customers. The DocsBase Apostille & Consular Legalisation Services team takes pride in offering a speedy and high quality service to all our customers, while placing a high focus on confidentiality and discretion.
Why do documents require Consular legalisation?
The need for Consular legalisation is increasing across the world, in line with globalisation and ease of travel. Many multinational companies based in Switzerland do business regularly with China, Russia, the Middle East etc, which leads to an extensive requirement of document legalisation, both of corporate documents as well vital records, health and educational documents of employees and individuals who travel abroad for employment purposes. Switzerland also has many high-net-worth individuals whose business dealings span the globe, and whose documents frequently need to be legalised for various business transactions. Last but not least the international banking industry in Switzerland creates an ongoing need for corporate legalisation needs, all of which DocsBase Apostille & Consular Legalisation Services are able to manage expertly with their professional and dedicated team who have years of experience in dealing with all aspects of legalisation.
Consular legalisation of document issued in Switzerland
Once the above legalisation layers have been completed, your document is ready for Consular legalisation in the relevant Embassy. If the country where the document is intended for use has an Embassy in Switzerland, DocsBase Apostille & Consular Legalisation Services will arrange for your documents to be brought to the Embassy, deal with any queries from the Consular section, and obtain the Consular legalisation on the document. As Switzerland hosts Embassies from most countries, many Embassies from smaller neighbouring countries, such as the Balkan countries, Slovenia, Croatia etc, rely on the Embassy in Switzerland to carry out their Consular services. This means that if a document has been issued in Croatia, it will undergo the first layer of legalisation by Notary or the relevant authority, as well as Apostille legalisation, in Croatia, and will then be sent to the Embassy in Switzerland to complete the Consular legalisation step. DocsBase Apostille & Consular Legalisation Services can also handle this service, by arranging for the document to collected by courier from Croatia (as an example), legalised in the Embassy in Switzerland, and then returned to Croatia, fully legalised and ready to be submitted for use.
Please contact DocsBase Apostille & Consular Legalisation Services so that we can answer any questions you may have and provide you with a personalised quotation to suit your requirements. We have extensive knowledge and experience in dealing with all legalisation matters, and provide a consistently high quality service with the purpose of ensuring that our customers’ expectations are always met and often exceeded!
