In accordance with the Hague Convention, documents issued by competent authorities of one state and intended for use in the territory of another state are affixed with a special stamp (apostille). According to Article 5 of the Convention, the apostille certifies the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which the person signing the document has acted, and, where appropriate, the authenticity of the seal or stamp which the document bears.
The signature, seal, or stamp placed by the competent authority on the apostille does not require any further certification or legalization, and the document bearing the apostille can be used in any of the countries that are parties to the Hague Convention.
List of countries party to the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, on the legalization of documents (Apostille)
The affixing of the “apostille” stamp (sometimes this procedure is also called “simplified legalization” or “apostilling”) is applied for sending documents to countries that have acceded to the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, which abolishes the requirement for consular legalization and introduces a simplified legalization procedure – affixing the “apostille” stamp.
This procedure is called simplified because, on the one hand, apostilling is carried out relatively quickly and only by one authorized body, and on the other hand, the document acquires legal force in all countries that have acceded to the Hague Convention.
If the country for which you are preparing the document is not a party to the Hague Convention, consular legalization is required. This is a more complex procedure, which involves certification of the document by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan and then by the consulate of the destination country in the Republic of Kazakhstan. In this case, the document will have legal force only in the territory of the country whose consular stamp it bears.
Also, the choice of legalization procedure may depend on the type of document, since there are a number of documents that are not subject to either consular legalization or apostilling. This mainly concerns commercial documents: contracts, invoices, bills of lading, various shipping documents, and other documents related to foreign economic activity. For such documents, there is a separate procedure – legalization at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan (recently incorporated into the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan “Atameken”), and then at the consulate of the destination country.