Apostille convention

The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, the Apostille convention or the Apostille treaty is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. It specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states. Such a certification is called an apostille (French: certification). It is an international certification comparable to a notarisation in domestic law.
The apostille itself is a stamp or printed form consisting of 10 numbered standard fields. On the top is the text APOSTILLE, under which the text Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961 (French: Hague Convention of 5 October 1961) is placed. In the numbered fields the following information is added:

    Country ... [country name]
    This public document
    has been signed by ... [name]
    acting in the capacity of ... [function]
    bears the seal/stamp of ... [authority]
    certified
    at ... [location]
    the ... [date]
    by ... [name]
    No ... [apostille registration number]
    Seal/stamp ... [of the authority giving the apostille]
    Signature ... [signature of authority giving the apostille]

The information can be placed on the (back of the) document itself, or attached to the document as an allonge.