Legalisation is the process of confirming the validity of foreign official documents intended for use in Poland, especially when the country where the document was issued is not a party to the Hague Convention. In such cases, the Polish consular office in that country performs the legalization, which involves confirming the document's compliance with the laws of the place of issuance by a consular official.

The list of Polish diplomatic missions abroad is available on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.

APOSTILLE

The Apostille, according to the 1961 Hague Convention, verifies the authenticity of documents, enabling their use abroad. It serves as a confirmation of compliance, attached to another document to facilitate its international usage. The Apostille confirms the authenticity of the signature, the authority of the person signing the document, and, if necessary, the identity of the seal or stamp on the document. In most European countries, the formal authority issuing Apostilles for foreign documents is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the respective country, and for educational documents, the relevant Ministry of Education.

LIST OF HAGUE CONVENTION COUNTRIES

An example of an Apostille clause may appear as follows, although templates may vary slightly depending on the country of document issuance: