Building on the Convention’s main purpose (simplification, as we covered in FAQ – What is the main purpose of the Hague Apostille Convention), the way it achieved this was quite revolutionary for international document use and is key to how we provide fast apostille services today.
Before the Hague Apostille Convention streamlined things in 1961, the process, often called ‘chain legalisation‘, could be incredibly complex and unpredictable – significantly more so than the FCDO-plus-Embassy route used today for non-Hague countries.
Imagine needing a UK document accepted overseas back then. Depending on the document and the destination country, you might have faced steps like this:
- Getting the document signed or certified (e.g., by a local official, solicitor, or notary).
- Potentially needing that signature verified by another UK authority (e.g., a court confirming the notary’s appointment or a professional body verifying an official).
- Then, they would get authentication from the relevant UK government department (e.g., the Foreign Office at the time).
- Finally, the multi-stamped document is taken to the destination country’s embassy or consulate in London. They would then apply their own authentication according to their specific, often unique, procedures, fees, and unpredictable timescales.
There was little international standardisation. Each additional step, especially the variable embassy stage, added significant delays, costs, and uncertainty, creating major hurdles for international trade and personal matters.
The Hague Convention replaced this potentially very long and unpredictable chain for member countries by introducing the single, standardised certificate: the apostille.
It replaced all those intermediate steps, especially the final destination embassy step, with a single action performed by one designated authority in the country where the document originated.
In the UK, that authority is the FCDO (as explained in FAQ: Who issues apostilles under the Hague Convention). The FCDO verifies the signature or seal of the UK official (like a registrar or the solicitor/notary who certified your document) and attaches the apostille certificate.
Crucially, all other Hague Convention member countries have agreed to accept this single apostille as sufficient proof of authentication. They trust the FCDO’s verification, so their embassy doesn’t need to be involved.
The result? A much more straightforward, generally faster, and less expensive process.
This simplification allows services like next-day legalisation or an express apostille to be viable options for documents going to Hague member countries, providing the fastest way to get an apostille within the official framework. (For countries not in the Convention, the final embassy legalisation step is still required after the apostille.)
