The short answer is no. Only Dirco is authorized to apostille documents. In some instances, official South African documents will need to be notarized by a notary public before being apostilled.
In South Africa, apostilling your documents is a simple process. You need to send your documents to Dirco, pay a fee, and wait for four to five weeks for them to be apostilled. Not every South African needs to have their documents apostilled. Often, South African citizens living abroad must apostil their documents to apply for immigration.
Apostilles refer to specialized certifications which are derived from the French language. Depending on the country or territory where the documents are expected to be used (typically a signatory country to the Hague Apostille Convention), notarized documents may be required by a notary public.
The Hague Apostille Convention only applies if both the issuing and receiving countries are parties to it; otherwise, the Apostille must be used to authenticate the document. Before your original document can be accepted in another Hague Convention country, you must obtain an Apostille certificate to ensure its authenticity and genuineness.
How Do Notarized and Apostille Documents Differ?
South Africans are permitted to use notarized documents within the country since they guarantee that the signatures on the document are authentic. A notarized document is a guarantee that the signatures on the document are authentic. To obtain an Apostille, notarization is always required.
Documents must be authenticated by an official before they can be accepted outside South Africa. Apostilles are issued as a result of the Hague Convention, which enables documents issued in one country to be accepted in another.
How Are Documents Apostilled?
The fastest and easiest way to apostil legal documents is to hire a document agent. DocAssist can assist you in this regard. We send all of the required documents and information to Dirco for apostilling. We then send them to you via DHL after they have been apostilled. Please contact DocAssist today to begin the process.