e-Apostille for Personal Documents
e-Apostille for Personal Documents
Personal documents like birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, and medical letters are among the most commonly apostilled documents for international use. This guide explains which personal documents can be e-Apostilled, which require paper apostilles, and how to prepare your documents for legalisation.
Key points:
- Which personal documents qualify for e-Apostille
- Why most personal documents still require paper apostilles
- How to obtain digital versions where available
- What to do if your document cannot be e-Apostilled
Everything You Need for a Fast Legalisation Service
Your e-Apostille is issued directly by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Our team will verify the document and organise valid electronic solicitor certification to avoid delays.
Understanding e-Apostille Eligibility for Personal Documents
Understanding e-Apostille Eligibility for Personal Documents
Most personal documents in the UK are still issued primarily as paper originals, which means they typically require traditional paper apostilles rather than e-apostilles. However, the situation is evolving as more issuing authorities adopt digital systems.
Why Most Personal Documents Need Paper Apostilles
Personal documents like birth, marriage, and death certificates as well as other government issued documents are usually issued by government officials as paper documents with physical seals, signatures and stamps. The e-Apostille cannot be issued to verify a physical signature, stamp or seal.
Which Personal Documents are Excluded from the e-Apostille
The e-Apostille service excludes a small number of document types. The following documents always require a paper apostille:
- All General Register Office (GRO) documents, including birth, death, marriage, civil partnership and adoption certificates
- ACRO police certificates for England and Wales
- Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) certificates for England and Wales
- Disclosure certificates for Scotland or Northern Ireland
- Fingerprint certificates
- Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) membership certificates
When Solicitor Certification Can Enable e-Apostille
If you have a paper personal document, that is not otherwise exlcuded from the e-Apostille service, a solicitor can apply their digital signature and certification to an electronic version of the document. This is generally suitable for documents that would have otherwise been wet ink solicitor certified for the purpose of obtaining a paper apostille. Documents that are ink signed by other types of legal official, i.e. medicial practitioners, police offiicers or government officials should still be legalised with the paper apostille.
Which Personal Documents Can Be e-Apostilled?
Which Personal Documents Can Be e-Apostilled?
Here’s a breakdown of common personal documents and their e-apostille eligibility:
Government Documents
Other Personal Documents
How to Obtain Digital Personal Documents
How to Obtain Digital Personal Documents
If you need an e-Apostille for a personal document, the first step is to determine if the document is actually eligible for an e-Apostille. Refer to the list above or check with us if you are unsure.
The next step is to check with the original issuing authority to see whether they can issue a digital version of the document.
If not, we can often work from scanned versions as electronic solicitor certification will still need to be added to the original digital file, or scan thereof, in any case.
For medical letters and reports, ask your GP surgery, hospital, or medical specialist whether they can provide a digitally signed version. Most likely they cannot, but some NHS services and private medical providers may adopt electronic signature systems in the future.
For academic documents, ask the issuing University or school for a digitally issued version. Many Universities have adopted systems to share digital versions of degrees, transcripts and similar via platforms such as GradIntel or DigitaryCore. We can then arrange for the electronic solicitor certification to be added to these once verified.
For birth, marriage and death certificates, digital versions are generally not available and the original documents must be legalised with the traditional paper apostille.
How The e-Apostille Process Works
The process is simple. Follow the steps below and we will arrange the e-apostille for you.
