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Legalization of trading documents

The legalization of documents, such as certificates of origin or commercial invoices serves to authenticate the documents for examination by foreign authorities.

For this purpose, documents must be certified by a foreign representation of the country in question (embassy, consulate). Documents to be certified must be in original. In some cases, it may be necessary to obtain pre-certification by a state court, the Federal Administrative Office or, for legalization by an Arab representation, by Ghorfa (Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry).

Our service

Servisum arranges for your trading documents to be legalized by the proper foreign representation. If necessary, we will first submit the documents with the Federal Administrative Office or Ghorfa on your behalf.

If you would like to know which foreign mission is responsible for the legalization of your documents and what you need to consider in connection with a possible preliminary authentication, please use the country selection on the right or contact us by phone or email. Thanks to our many years of experience in the field of legalization, we can offer you the fastest and most reliable processing of your request.

Placing an order/visa order form

Orders that are to be processed on a daily basis must be received by our offices by 8.30 am.

In addition, you are welcome to use our following blank form to send the documents in a window envelope.

Form for window envelope:

SERVISUM Berlin 

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Payment method

You can pay by invoice, credit card, or direct debit. Simply select your preferred payment method on our order form.

SERVISUM Rates

Not included are embassy/consulate fees (which may incur additional bank charges) and transportation costs. Surcharge reserved for significant additional effort/additional services.

SERVISUM Fee

Standard (per document/stamp)
€98.77* (€83.00**)
Administrative Fee (per order)
€4.50* (€3.78**)

Additional Services

Pick-up (per order)
€38.08* (€32.00**)
GHORFA (per order)
€98.77* (€83.00**)
Federal Office for Foreign Affairs (per order)
€90.00

*incl. VAT.
**     excl. VAT.

For invoice revisions, a fee between €5.00** and €20.00** may apply (depending on the effort).

FAQ

What is a legalization?

Legalization is a process in which a German document intended to be presented to a foreign authority is certified for authenticity by a diplomatic mission (embassy or consulate) of that respective country.

What is a legalization?

Legalization can also mean the removal of a ban that was imposed on an action.

What is the Hague Convention of 1961?

At the Hague Conference of 1961, among other things, a "Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents" was adopted. For this, it is necessary that the document be provided with an apostille.

What is an apostille?

An apostille is a standardized certification of a document in accordance with the provisions of the 1961 Hague Convention. It ensures that the document is recognized by the authorities in the receiving country without the need for legalization, provided that the receiving country is also a party to this convention.

Why is prior certification by the Federal Office of Administration (BVA) often required?

The BVA is authorized to certify all German public documents. Some countries generally require prior certification by the BVA for legalization.

Why is prior certification by a regional court often required?

In order for the foreign mission (embassy or consulate) to certify the authenticity of a document, it must be able to verify the authenticity of the prior certifier’s signature. Since there are a large number of notaries in each consular district, consular departments require that the authenticity of the notarial signature be confirmed by the competent regional court. Signature samples of the respective regional court presidents are usually available to the consular departments.

Why is prior certification by the Ghorfa often required?

The Ghorfa is the German-Arab Chamber of Commerce and supports economic exchange in various ways. Documents requiring legalization by the consular section of an Arab representation usually need prior certification by the Ghorfa. This certification can only be carried out if the documents have been previously certified by a German authority (regional court, BVA, IHK) in accordance with the regulations of the respective country.

Contact us

As the flood of spam e-mails and malicious viruses continues unabated, we are sometimes forced to delete e-mails with unsafe attachments and those from unidentified senders or without a subject without reading them.

In addition, we urge you to be specific about your request (e.g. by stating the purpose of your trip, length of stay, nationality of the applicant, etc.). You are welcome to ask us your questions by telephone. You are welcome to use electronic mail to submit any missing documents.

030 3400060
Mon-Fri: 9.00 a.m. - 4.30 p.m.
Otto-Suhr-Allee 97/99, 10585 Berlin
berlin@servisum.de