Notary, Apostille & Legalization

You may sometimes need to have the corporate documents of your Hong Kong company used outside Hong Kong. Examples are: 1. opening an overseas corporate bank account. 2. registering an overseas branch office. 3. entering into an agreement with an overseas’ partner. 4. registering your Hong Kong company as a WOFE (Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprise) in China. All methods of documents authentication - Notarization, apostille, or legalization may apply. What are they? Notarization Only a notary public can notarize a document. A notary can certify a legal document as a copy of the original, authenticate a signature or certify by witnessing a person's...

Documents that said to be legalized usually meant to be legalized by a Notary Public in Hong Kong which are usually accepted internationally. There are, however, certain situation that documents need to be legalized by different authorities other than a Notary Public ie. documents apostilled by High Court in Hong Kong or documents attested by a China Appointed Attesting Officer. Apostille Service When the statutory documents of a Hong Kong company are used for overseas government registration, they are usually required to be apostilled by High Court in Hong Kong. The apostille service is available at Apostille Service Office, High Court Registry. It will take around 3-4...