Starting May 14 2013, the apostille started to be accepted by Nicaraguan authorities as a simplified mechanism of legalization of public documents issued abroad or issued in Nicaragua who will have an impact outside its borders, which shall take effect only among the countries that are part of the Hague Convention.
The apostille is a pre-printed form, which is attached to the document itself by the competent authority of the issuing state or an extension thereof, which must be submitted to the competent authority in the territory of a state which is party to the Convention, where the document is to be used and does not need any other certification from the Consulate or Embassy. The fundamental difference with the consular authorities is that the latter is issued by the consular or diplomatic agent of the country where the document should have effect.
Nicaragua joined the “Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents”, known as The Apostille Convention by Decree No. 14-2012, published in the Gazette No. 85 of 9 May 2012, approved by the National Assembly by Decree No. 6969 published in the Gazette No. 135 of July 18, 2012 and was deposited on September 7, 2012.
Meanwhile the Foreign Ministry of Nicaragua, in a statement issued on May 10, it has announced its entry into as of May 14 2013 and also discloses that in Nicaragua the competent authority which issue the apostilles is the Directorate General Consular of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is responsible for granting and publishing end notes.
Among the countries that are party to the convention of the Hague apostille are: Germany, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, China People, Colombia, South Korea, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, United States, Finland, France, Honduras, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan , Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, UK, Dominican Republic, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, Venezuela, etc..
This is a great step forward for legalization of documents, since the use this mechanism allows the simplification of legalization procedures, reducing the time and cost to legalize public documents issued abroad to be validated via consular authentic; unifying the requirements and the elimination of formalities to facilitate the identification of public documents between signatory countries.
By Lyman Chandler
