Embassy Legalization and/or Certification for Foreign Public Documents in Indonesia
Preword
Convention abolishing The Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents concluded in October 5, 1961. The convention called “Hague Convention”, a group of nations joined to create a simplified method of legalizing documents for universal recognition.
The Convention shall apply to public documents which have been executed in the territory of one Contracting State and which have to be produced in the territory of another Contracting State. The following are deemed to be public documents:
- documents emanating from an authority or an official connected with the courts or tribunals of the State, including those emanating from a public prosecutor, a clerk of a court or a process-server (”huissier de justice”);
- administrative documents;
- notarial acts;
- official certificates which are placed on documents signed by persons in their private capacity, such as official certificates recording the registration of a document or the fact that it was in existence on a certain date and official and notarial authentications of signatures;
Indonesia as a Non-Contracting State
Indonesia is not a state-member of the Hague Convention, then you will need an Embassy Legalization to be valid internationally. As a non-member of Hague Convention, the documents must full-fill certain requirements before the foreign embassy in Indonesia can legalize your documents.
Public documents issued by the Indonesian institutions and other immigration related documents require certifications or legalizations or authentications in order to be recognized internationally. The legalizations rules are different for different countries. Not all information is provided clearly and many regulations are different to other countries.
This conflicting information is not a personal attack on you, it’s typical of government bereaucracy all over the world. The process usually complicated and, in many cases the lack of time or expertise causes you delays and valuable time is lost. We can only begin to imagine how you must be feeling with the delays and the conflicting information from all involved. This is very distressing for you.
Legalization/Certification Procedures
The procedures should be as follows:
- The Public Documents should be signed by the official of the issuing office;
- Then, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of ROI should legalize the signature of the official of the issuing office;
- Then, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should legalize the signature of the official of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of ROI;
- Then, the related foreign embassy should legalize the signature of the official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Another relevant issue is that the government officers of ROI require to see the original public documents prior to legalize the copies. They will not legalize the original documents, but still they require the original ones to be shown.
