Legalisation (Apostille)

When you need to use documents issued by public authorities abroad you will often have to legalise those documents.

What is legalisation?

A legalisation is an annotation, which confirms that a signature is genuine. It does, however, not constitute proof that the contents of the document is correct.

Which documents require legaliation?

Documents issued by a Faroese authority, e.g. national register certificates, diploma certificates or tax certificates, must be legalised by the High Commissioner’s Office before they are sent to Denmark (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), please see below.

Legalisation by Faroese authorities

In many cases signatures on documents issued by a Faroese authority, or equivalent, will first have to be legalised by the Faroese Government (the relevant Ministry). The High Commissioner’s Office will usually be able to advise about which government remit a document falls under. As an example, consider a national register certificate or a wedding certificate issued by a municipality. In this case, the document will first have to be legalised by the Faroese Ministry of Health and The Interior (as it is the authority responsible for the area of municipalities and public registries), and subsequently by the High Commissioner. In case of a diploma certificate, the Faroese Ministry of Culture will have to issue the initial legalisation.

Legalisation through several authorities

Once the High Commissioner’s Office has legalised the signature on the document, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs must legalise this in order to certify that the signature from the High Commissioner’s Office is genuine.

The High Commissioner’s Office usually undertakes to forward the documents to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting that the Ministry carry out the legalisation and thereafter return the documents to the person who requested the legalisation. This prevents undue delays caused by the document being returned to the person requesting the legalisation after each legalisation.

In many cases, it is further required that the embassy of the country where the document is to be used annotate the certificate in order to certify that the signature from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is genuine. We recommend that you contact the relevant embassy in advance in order to obtain information regarding legalisation in the country in question. If legalisation by another country’s embassy is required, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can forward the documents to the embassy in question on the sender’s request, but only if a stamped envelope addressed to the relevant embassy is enclosed.

Payment to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs charges a fee for each document that requires legalisation. The fee is payable using the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s web shop, which is accessible via the link below:

https://dys.um.dk/Shop/purchase/details/6291b557-b0ac-4f5c-ba08-5f11eaa991a7

Please note, documents that are to be sent to an address abroad will incur an additional fee to cover the cost of postage. Please indicate how you would like the documents to be posted.

On submission of the documents to the High Commissioner’s Office you must enclose a printout of the receipt from the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s web shop.

How long will it take to legalise the documents?
It will usually take 8 to 10 days from when the High Commissioner’s Office receives the documents until the Ministry of Foreign Affairs returns them. However, when documents require legalisation by a foreign embassy processing times will be longer, how long will depend on the circumstances.

For further information, please visit the website of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

http://um.dk/da/rejse-og-ophold/legalisering