As part of our commitment to a transparent and complete service at LAS Ltd, we provide a scan of your documents once they have been successfully legalised (i.e., after the FCDO has issued an apostille or an attestation has been completed by an embassy).
This digital copy serves several important purposes:
- It provides you with immediate proof that the legalisation service you ordered has been successfully completed.
- It acts as a useful digital record for your files.
- It serves as a final check and confirmation before your physical documents are dispatched to you or made ready for collection.
Understanding our scanning procedure will help you know what to expect:
Our standard scanning procedure
For single-page documents:
When we legalise individual, single-page documents (like birth, degree, ACRO, or medical certificates), our standard practice is to scan both the front and back of each document.
This ensures that the apostille certificate (usually affixed to the reverse of the document or attached as a separate page and then bound to the document) and any other official stamps are captured.
If your order includes several individual documents (e.g., one birth certificate, one ACRO certificate, and one medical certificate), we will scan all these documents (front and back as described above) and then compile them into one single, combined PDF file for your convenience. This avoids you receiving multiple separate email attachments.
For document bundles:
A ‘document bundle’ refers to a set of multiple pages already bound or intrinsically linked as a single item before legalisation (e.g., a set of company incorporation documents, a multi-page contract, extensive educational transcripts).
Our standard procedure for these bundles is not to scan every page. This is especially true for bundles containing many pages (some can be 30 pages or more).
By default, for document bundles, we typically scan:
- The front page (or cover page) shows the main document title.
- The page(s) where the apostille certificate and any embassy stamps have been affixed.
Requesting a full scan of your document bundle
We understand that some clients require a complete digital copy of their entire legalised document bundle, page by page.
- Notification is essential: If you need every page of your document bundle scanned, you must clearly inform us of this requirement when you place your order.
- Timing is crucial: Once documents have been scanned according to our standard procedure and have been dispatched or collected, we are unfortunately unable to recall them for a full rescan due to logistical reasons. Therefore, requests for full scans must be made upfront.
Additional charges for full scans of document bundles
Scanning numerous pages requires significant additional administrative time and resources. Therefore, for document bundles where a full, page-by-page scan is specifically requested, the following additional charges apply if the bundle contains more than 5 pages:
- 5 to 10 pages: £5
- 11 to 20 pages: £10
- 21 to 30 pages: £15
- 31 to 40 pages: £20
- 41 to 50 pages: £25
For bundles containing over 50 pages, please enquire with us when placing your order, and we will provide a specific quote for the full scanning service.
Please also note that when documents are professionally bound, for instance, with a traditional notarial coversheet, which often includes a clear plastic front, scanning every page perfectly flat without potentially stressing or damaging the binding can be challenging.
While we always make every effort to produce clear and legible scans, this means some pages within a fully scanned bound document might not appear perfectly straight in the resulting PDF due to these physical constraints.
Scan quality and delivery
All our scans are created to be clear and legible and provided in PDF format. These are perfectly suitable for your records or for forwarding electronically as needed. The PDF scan is typically emailed to you once the legalisation process is complete and your physical documents are confirmed as ready for dispatch or collection from our London office.
We aim for complete transparency in all our services. Before placing your order, please don’t hesitate to discuss any specific questions or requirements regarding document scanning with our team.
