What you need to know about legalizing

When you move abroad, in many cases you have to have documents legalized. This makes them usable in countries other than the country of issue. It is then clear that the document is official. This applies, for example, to diplomas, driving licenses, and notary documents.

Holiday for two years

Jeroen and I are not married, this means that we are no family of each other on paper. So no reason for Malaysia to give me a visa. The embassy of Malaysia in The Hague had to laugh and said “You are not his wife, you are going on holiday for two years. But you know, two years without each other is not bad. That’s just good for the relationship.” After these wise words we decided to move together anyway. So not getting married, but how do you get a visa? After a lot of emails back and forth with also the Dutch embassy in Kuala Lumpur we concluded that having a cohabitation contract is enough to get both a visa.

Malaysian embassy

So, you have drawn up a cohabitation contract at the notary, you have had it translated by a sworn translator, then you have been to the court to have it legalized, you go to The Hague to have your document legalized again and then you have reached the final step. Often the country where you are going to use the document also wants to legalize it. You will be in The Hague anyway, so you can immediately visit the Malaysian embassy for a visit.

After all these steps you will be ready for departure in the Netherlands. Now we have to wait and see if we will get that visa. To be continued…

Apostille convention

So on to the notary! That is not for free. A basic cohabitation contract costs €250. If you think that’s it, then you’re wrong. There will be at least another €150 for consultations, extras, and VAT. Also, our contract had to be provided with an apostille. The apostille is a kind of stamp that replaces the legalization. The ideal of course, because then you don’t necessarily have to go to The Hague to have your document legalized. So we had this done by the notary. There is only a small but important remark. An apostille can only be used for countries that have signed the Apostille Convention. So make sure, you check this! Unfortunately Malaysia is not part of the Apostille Convention and we found that out after we got the apostille…

Cohabitation contract

Too bad this joke cost us another €75. And so we went to The Hague to have the document, which has meanwhile been translated into English by a sworn translator, legalized. After requesting a lot of quotations, we chose this translator. The costs were half as cheap compared to sworn translation agencies.
This website provides a lot of information about legalization for documents. You make sure that your document is handed in at the consular services center in The Hague before 12.30 p.m., you pay €10 and 20 minutes later it is ready for use. But wait, the apostille doesn’t apply to this country so who checks if the cohabitation contract is legal and official? Indeed, the consular services center doesn’t. You have to go to court first. The cost, €14.