Getting an apostille for your Delaware based company’s certificate of Incorporation from Italy is mandatory, if your company plans to expand to Italy. Whether it is to start a branch or to start a collaboration with Italy, whenever you submit your corporate documents issued in Delaware in Italy getting an apostille is essential for legal recognition.
US Apostille is a process of checking the originality, Authenticity and correctness of the US issued documents. Any US Certificate with Apostille is considered as a genuine and verified document in all Hague nations.
Hague Nations are a group of 117 Nations that have come together to streamline the authentication of documents process. According to Hague nation rules US Apostille on a document is enough to consider it as a verified document in Italy.
On the contrary If you are travelling to Country which doesn’t belong to the Hague convention needs further legalization after the apostille is done. Read here to know more about Legalization for non Hague countries
4 Easy steps to get US Apostille on the documents
Certificate of incorporation which is also known as articles of incorporation is a document confirming the formation of the company as per the corporate law of the respective state. For companies registered in Delaware, it is formed and functioned as per the cooperate law of Delaware. For Delaware based companies, a certificate of incorporation is issued by the secretary of the Delaware state.
A certificate of incorporation includes following details:
An apostille is a certification to authenticate foreign documents as per the guidelines of Hague Apostille Convention. Apostille verifies official documents such as a certificate of incorporation with a stamp/certificate making it legal in a Hague Apostille country without any further steps.
Any document issued by the US while used in another country is foreign and authorities from those countries have no guarantee about the originality of the document. Thus, a system of verification was in practice ever since the documents were used in other countries. Earlier, an embassy attestation was mandatory for legalizing foreign documents. However, the Hague apostille convention made the process easier. Now a member country needs to submit a document with an apostille to legalize in another member country.
Since, United State of America and Italy are members of the Hague Apostille convention, an apostille is enough to legalize US state issued documents such as Delaware Certificate of Incorporation in Italy.
The reasons why you need to get an apostille for a Delaware state issued certificate of incorporation in Italy are:
A Delaware apostille usually includes:
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Cost of getting an apostille for Certificate of Incorporation Apostille varies depending on factors such as:
If you are planning to submit Delaware COI in country other than Italy which falls under non Hague country, there are some extra steps. For non Hague countries the secretary of the state issues an Authentication Certificate verifying the signature and seal on your corporate document. Instead of an apostille, this certificate is called a Certificate of Authentication. Then follow below steps to legalize COI for a non Hague country.
Finally, the authenticated document must be legalized at the embassy or consulate of the destination country (located in the U.S.). For example, if it is submitted in the UAE, attestation should be obtained from the UAE embassy in the USA.
Obtaining an apostille for your Delaware certificate of incorporation is critical for legitimate business activities in Italy. With the help of an authorized apostille service in the US, you can get an apostille for a US issued certificate of incorporation fast and secure from anywhere in the world.
Processing time to get an apostille for US issued certificate of incorporation will vary depending on the state. however, the standard time is between 3-10 working days. Moreover the courier time to reach the apostilled COI back to Italy also should be considered.
No. You can not use notarized copy of certificate of incorporation to get an apostille from a US state. Only a certified copy issued from the secretary of the state is eligible for an apostille.
No authority in Italy can issue an apostille for Delaware issued document. Only the secretary of the state of Delaware issues an apostille for Delaware certificate of incorporation apostille. It is applicable only if the company was registered in Delaware. In other cases, respective state secretary issues an apostille for COI.