Does the apostille have a shelf life?

Our customers often ask themselves whether apostille has a statute of limitations and whether the document will be accepted for border if the apostille is affixed, for example, a year or two ago.

We are always happy to help our customers, so we want to clarify this situation.

The legal documents, including the articles of the Hague Convention, do not spell out the validity of the apostille. Therefore, if any institution insists on updating the apostille and refuses to accept documents, this requirement has no legal basis. Some countries, such as Italy, Switzerland and a number of others, impose requirements on the statute of limitations of the document itself. Embassies of these countries do not accept documents older than 6 months. This requirement applies to both one-time documents (certificate of registration, certificate of employment, bank statement, etc.), as well as birth, marriage, and divorce certificates. If you plan to submit documents to embassies or other state bodies of these countries, it is better to worry in advance about the availability of repeated duplicates of these documents and the stamp Apostille.

Specialists of the translation agency "Etalon" will help you prepare the current package of documents for submission to any embassy or abroad.