As part of the ongoing national campaign to ease market entry and promote the growth of the private sector, Saudi Arabia (RIYADH) – The Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (1961 Apostille Convention) entered into force for Saudi Arabia on December 7, 2022, following the deposit of its instrument of accession on April 8, 2022.
On December 19, 2022, the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) issued an official notification regarding abolishing the consular legalization requirement for documents issued in one of the contracting states of the Apostille Convention.
By way of background, the convention is a multilateral treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law and was first enforced in 1965 by the initial ratifying states, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Hong Kong. The Convention specifies how certain documents issued in a signatory state can be certified for legal purposes in other states.
Certification under the Convention is called an apostille. To be eligible for an apostille, a document must first be issued or certified by an officer recognized by the authority that will issue the Apostille.
With Saudi Arabia’s accession, an apostille issued by the state of origin is sufficient to certify a document’s validity and removes the need for double certification by the originating country and then by the receiving country.
This update is bound to reduce complexity, timelines, and costs for the private sector in Saudi Arabia.
Accordingly, the legalization of documents by Apostille will be sufficient.
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