
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica legalizes the signatures of national authorities to take effect in foreign countries. The procedure is to legalize the signatures of the authorized public servants to record the validity and legitimacy of documents of national origin abroad.
A public document Costa Rican that has not been legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cult has no effect abroad. Likewise a public document issued in another state, no effect in Costa Rica unless, duly certified by an agency of the MREC, or has been certified at the state that issued it.
Importantly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs NO legalized document content; ONLY legalize the signature of the official certifying the document.
In accordance with Law No. 8923 – Published in Gazette No. 47 of 8 March 2011, approving the accession of Costa Rica to the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961. It is expected that as of December 14, 2011, Costa Rica is authorized to grant Apostilles.
The Hague Apostille deleting the requirement for diplomatic and consular legalization of public documents originating in a State signatory to the Convention which was intended to have effects in another State also signed.
As required by the Convention, the documents issued in a country of this, they have been legalized with an Apostille are recognized in any other Convention country without any other authentication.
During the year 2011, Costa Rica working on the Project Implementation of the Convention in order to be ready to offer the Apostille service in December. To this end, we are developing a Control System Award and Apostille, which includes the ability to apostille a document and publish the electronic apostille on a website, so it can be verified by any of the member countries of the Convention.
All public documents issued in Costa Rica that will take effect legally in another state or government, except those documents executed by diplomatic or consular and administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations.
Since December (2012), the MREC is scheduled, make available to the public two alternative means of authentication of signatures in a document, to be effective abroad. This will depend on whether the country where the document is legalized or not part attached to the Convention.
If the document is aimed at countries that are not members of the Hague Convention, the applicant will get the traditional legalization will be placed on the physical document.
Authentication duly executed will be digitized and published so that it can be viewed and downloaded the ministry’s website, through service “Legalization Query” using the keys printed on the document.
If the document is addressed to a member of the Hague Convention, the applicant will obtain the Apostille is also attached to the physical document.
The apostille duly issued will be digitized and published so that it can be viewed and downloaded on the website of the ministry, through the service “Check Apostille” using the keys printed on the document.
The purpose of this consultation service apostille and legalization is that the authentication applicant and any other interested party who go for the document authenticated, can through this page, check the validity of an Apostille or legalization.
This is modernizing the judicial system of Costa Rica in this field was a little late. The certificate would not apply to documents issued by diplomatic or consular or administrative documents which refer directly to a commercial or customs operations.
When interested in verifying the authentication, enter the elements that unify authentication (Apostille Key / Key Legalization, grant date and verification code) can be displayed on the screen, the digital image of the Apostille / Legalization, the which will be a true copy of the original issued by the Competent Authority. This image will allow a visual comparison with the Apostille presented, being able to confirm it is genuine.








