The Hague Apostille is a stamp which was introduced on 5th October 1961 under the Hague Convention on Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. Therefore, instead of carrying out the procedure of legalization for each foreign document, as it was done before, now it is enough to certify the document in the country where it was issued by the stamp called the Apostille.
The Apostille certificate is issued by authorities of the state where the document was issued upon the request of any certificate bearer. States signatories freely determine the appropriate authority competent for issuance of the Apostille certificates.
It is applicable to documents issued by authorities or officials of state judiciary, public prosecution, court clerk's offices and court bailiffs, administrative documents, documents issued or certified by a notary public, official statements of entries in public registers and official certifications of signatures on private documents.
It is not applicable to documents issued by diplomatic and consular representatives and documents that are directly related to trade or business activities.
The Apostille Certificate should be made in accordance with the prescribed form, placed at the document itself or its appendix, it can be made in the official language of the issuing authority, but the title "Apostille (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)" must be in French, in order for the authorities of the contracting countries to recognize and accept it.
In Serbia this stamp can be obtained in the court, while in other countries it can be obtained by other state bodies, too. In Belgrade the Hague Apostille is certified in the court located in Nikola Tesla Street, no. 42a, the former building of Aeroinženjering, and it is applicable to documents issued in Belgrade. Documents issued in other cities shall be certified in courts located in these cities..
In case you are not sure whether the document should contain the Hague Apostille, whether the Hague Apostille should be translated or not and/or in case you have any other doubts, it is necessary to call the international legal assistance which is located in the Court in Nikola Tesla Street no.42a, Belgrade, phone no. 011/655 37 24.
Documents issued by state authorities both in our country or abroad need to be translated and certified in order to make their translations official documents, too. These are usually diplomas, final report cards, certificates, decisions and similar. These are the most common types of documents which are translated by court interpreters.
The Ministry of Justice issues the Decision on the Appointment of a Court Interpreter, which authorizes a Court Interpreter to translate documents and certify them with a stamp, thus guarantying the full conformity of the translation with the original document.
In addition to the text, these translations also contain the stamp of a court interpreter, as well as the clause at the end of the translation stating the name of the interpreter who translated the text, as well as the number of Decision on the Appointment of a Court Interpreter.
In addition to written translations, our court interpreters can be also engaged for interpretation services.
Court interpreters do fieldwork on the occasion of marriage ceremony, business meeting, certification of signatures, or in any other situation where the person concerned does not speak the official language.
