FCO postal service

The FCO has indicated that approximately 60% of customers already submit their applications for legalisation via post. For these customers the new legalisation procedure is intended to provide benefits as the target turn around time for “straight forward applications” is planned to be 24 hours rather than the previous 48 hours.  However the experience of a number of our notary clients is that this reduced service time for obtaining Apostilles has not been consistently maintained since introduction at the beginning of April 2011.

FCO Public Counter

As approximately 30% of customers travelled in person to submit their applications via the Legalisation public counter these customers have had this service removed from them.  The alternative for these customers is to use a legalisation agent such as M D Pryke Notary Public LLP.  Registered legalisation agents still have a business counter service available to them so that documents can be delivered, legalised and collected within the same day.

FCO Premium Service

This service remains unaffected.  This service is only open to registered businesses. Therefore individuals looking to take advantage of this efficient service should engage the services of a legalisation agent such as London Notary Public Matthew Pryke.

Apostille Fees

In addition to increasing the legalisation fees the FCO are also encouraging on-line payments as a more convenient and cost-effective method.  Notary clients applying to the Milton Keynes office will still be able to pay by bankers’ draft, postal order and business cheques.  However if the amounts are incorrect or a document within a batch of documents are not entirely correct then the whole matter will be rejected by the FCO and returned to the client.

Given the changes which have been introduced by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office many more notary clients are taking advantage of the cost effective legalisation services offered by London notaries.  The ability for Notary Public practices to provide certainty regarding timings and cost is not only appealing to most clients but absolutely essential.

For further details of the legalisation and notarial services offered by London Notary Public practice M D Pryke Notary Public LLP or for further information on how to get documents legalised please refer to the website at www.mdpryke-notary.com.

FCO legalisation fees increase

From 6 April 2011 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office increased the legalisation charges to:

£30.00 per document for its standard service (via its legalisation office in Milton Keynes).

£75.00 per document for its express service (via its London legalisation office at Centre Point).

These legalisation fee increases are a material consideration for all clients.  London notaries advise clients to plan in advance, if possible, legalisation requirements as this can often allow clients to achieve a saving.  For example a Notary can use the Foreign and Commonwealth Office standard service which generates a £45 saving per notarised document.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office legalisation public counter closed

From 1 April 2011 members of the general public have been unable to attend the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices in Milton Keynes.  Members of the public are required to use a postal service.  This means urgent matters cannot be hand delivered.  As legalisation agents, M D Pryke Notary Public LLP, is able to obtain legalisation on behalf of our clients via the Milton Keynes office or Centre Point in London within the same working day.

M D Pryke Notary Public comments, “The changes introduced by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are not entirely unexpected, given the pressure on government departments and their budgets.  We suggest you liaise with your notary public London at the first opportunity so the Notary can plan the budget and timetable to meet your commercial requirements.  As a full service London Notary Public practice we are able to notarise and legalised documents for every country globally.  We are always happy to provide detailed fee quotes and timetables which allow our clients to plan with certainty for every notarial and legalisation matter.”

For further details of the legalisation and notarial services offered by London Notary Public practice M D Pryke Notary Public LLP please refer to the website at www.mdpryke-notary.com.

The Foreign and Commonwealth office advise that both Legalisation offices will operate as usual, up to and including Thursday 23 December 2010.

Milton Keynes – Norfolk House:

24 December: 09.30 to 14.00

27 December: Closed

28 December: Closed

29 December: Closed

30 December: 09.30 to 15.30

31 December: 09.30 to 14.00

03 December: Closed

04 December: 09.30 to 15.30

We are further advised that every Notary in London with documents to legalise on behalf of their clients must submit these documents by 15.00 on Thursday 23 December, in order that they can be legalised by Christmas.

Any Notary in London that wishes to have documents legalised before New Year must submit them prior to 15.00 on 30 December.

A Notary in London who wishes to legalise business documents on behalf of their clients must, as ever, submit them to the Centre Point offices in London.

The opening hours for the Centre point offices are as follows:

24 December: 09.00 to 14.00

27 December: Closed

28 December: Closed

29 December: Closed

30 December: 09.00 to 15.30

31 December: 09.00 to 14.00

03 December: Closed

04 December: 09.00 to 15.30

Notaries in London wishing to work around the FCO’s holiday hours are advised that on Christmas Eve they will accept documents received in the morning postal delivery and collect and return those taken in on 23 December.

For further information on the Notary information displayed here, please contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office directly, or MD Pryke Notary Public LLP on 0207 636 4422.

MD Pryke Notary Public LLP, was recently approached by a US citizen visiting the UK, enquiring whether we offered a London mobile notary service, who then requested we meet him in Manchester.  Unfortunately, we were not able to fulfil his request but as mobile notary service is a term commonly typed into search engines, we thought that it may be useful to explore what distance a member of the public can expect a Notary Public in London to travel in order to meet clients.

As discussed in previous Notary Public London Guides, MD Pryke Notary Public LLP is based in the City of Westminster, and we will travel to our clients’ homes or business addresses in Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, Camden, Islington, Wandsworth, Lambeth and Southwark.

London is such a densely populated city that any reputable London Notary will most likely offer a mobile service in order to process a notarial matter.  Notary fees vary widely however so please remember that an additional cost may be incurred if a client requests a mobile notary service.

For further details on Notary fees or any of the issues covered in this guide, please contact MD Pryke Notary Public LLP on 0207 636 4422.

‘London presents a very competitive market in which to operate a Notary Public service’, says Matthew.  ‘It is vital that as a business focused Notary practice based in central London, we match the pace and intensity of the corporate clients we serve.

‘Of course, a London Notary Practice such as ours thrives on repeat business from clients who value our level of service, our competitive pricing structure and our forensic attention to detail on every transaction.  To pass the 1000 mark for new clients remains a significant achievement however, and it reflects the intelligence and hard work of the MD Pryke Notary Public LLP team who go to such great lengths to ensure that every notarial transaction is completed swiftly and efficiently, and with the absolute minimum of fuss.

‘Whether my staff are advising clients on legalisation matters, apostille work, power of attorney issues or our free deed poll service; their diligence and common sense approach is unparalleled.’

For further details of how this Notary London practice can service your Notarial requirements, please contact us on 0207 6364422, or via our website.

Once the Apostille has been attached by the Foreign and Commonwealth office the document will then need to be presented by your London Notary Public to the Consular Section of the Philippine Embassy.  The Philippine Embassy charge a consular fee of £18.00 per legalised document in the large majority of cases.  However certain notarised documents are priced at £27.50.  Your Notary Public London should be able to supply a detailed notarisation and legalisation fee quote in advance.  The Philippine Embassy will usually turnaround documents in one to two working days and therefore the whole notarisation and legalisation process, including dealing with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, should be completed by your Notary Public London in two working days.      

The Philippine Embassy is easily located for this London Notaries practice at 6-8 Suffolk Street, Piccadilly, London SW1Y 4HG.  Therefore this London Notary practice can deal with the notarisation and legalisation process for the Philippines efficiently and in a cost effective manner. For an example of a document legalised by the Philippine Embassy please see the image below.     

Example of Philippines Legalisation Certificate

For further details of notarisation and legalisation requirements for the Philippines please contact Notary Public London, Matthew Pryke at http://www.mdpryke-notary.com/.

Notarised documents often require legalisation to ensure they are accepted in the country where they are to be used. London Notary clients will often be familiar with the sometimes time consuming process of legalising documents for particular countries.

Apostille – A Quicker Legalisation Solution?

The use of an Apostille is an effective way of legalising documents for a number of countries. Our London Notary Public practice can obtain an Apostille from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office legalisation office in the same business day. This provides a fast and cost effective legalisation solution to our London Notary clients and is in keeping with the same day notarisation services offered by this Notary Public in London.    

Apostille – New Countries

London Notary Public practice M D Pryke Notary Public LLP is pleased to confirm that the following countries have recently acceded to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, with the benefit that it removes the requirement of legalisation for foreign public documents:

1. Cape Verde on 13^th February 2010.

2. Dominican Republic on 30^th August 2009.

3. Mongolia on 31^st December 2009.

In addition, the Hague Convention will enter into force for Peru on the scheduled date of 30^th September 2010. To view a current status table of the Hague Convention please visit the following website www.hcch.net.

London Notary Public Comment

London Notary Public Matthew Pryke welcomes the news, “The introduction of more countries to the Hague Convention is great news. The legalisation process used by our London Notary practice to obtain Apostilles is very fast and efficient offering excellent value for money. This means that Notary clients receive legalised documents back more quickly without the need to meet additional legalisation criteria at any of London’s consulates and embassies. Whilst we continue to offer a complete legalisation service to all of our notary clients for every country any changes which make the process quicker is always well received by our notary public practice based in Mayfair, London and its many client’s.”

For further information about the legalisation services offered by this Notary Public in London please refer to http://www.mdpryke-notary.com/londonnotarypublicservices/

At MD Pryke Notary Public LLP we use a steel Notary stamp as pictured below

Notary Stamp used by London Notary Public, Matthew Pryke

Which creates a Notary stamp imprint as follows

UK Notary seal, example of...

For more information on UK Notary stamps, please contact M D Pryke Notary Public LLP  through the usual channels.

Essentially, there are three distinct types of Police Clearance Certificate in the United Kingdom and their legalisation requirements vary.

The Subject Access Letter does not require the signature of a Notary to be legalised, as a signature from an officer of the Criminal Records Bureau will suffice.  The Foreign and Commonwealth office hold the signatures of the relevant officers on their database for future reference.

The Police Certificate for use in Immigration matters is relevant only for the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa and does not require additional legalisation or further certification of any kind, therefore a Notary will not be required.

In Scotland, however, the Criminal Records Bureau issue a document called Disclosure which must be certified by a Notary Public (or a practising Solicitor, Barrister, or certain types of Legal Executive) before they can be legalised.

Should you require further information concerning any aspect of Legalisation, Notary Services in London, or the Notarial process in general, please contact MD Pryke Notary Public LLP on 0207 6364422 or via the contact form on our website.

Article 1 dealt with: The need for an Apostille Certificate, What a typical Apostille Certificate looks like, which countries accept them and the information they include.

Are all Apostille certificates the same?

No.  Although Apostille certificates were introduced by the Hague Convention of January 1965 to provide a standardised set of rules governing legalisation between member states, there are certain exceptions.

As of July 2010 the Legalisation office in Milton Keynes declares that all Apostilles issued for use in Russian child adoption cases must now be square as indicated below.

Square Apostille Certificate

For further information on the new Apostille Certificates pertaining to Russian child adoption cases, please contact London Notary Public Matthew Pryke through the usual channels.