Exciting news for anyone who needs a document legalized for use in Pakistan or Senegal: starting this month, they will enter into the Hague Apostille Convention. This means documents no longer have to be authenticated at the embassy or consulate for either country. This will save you time, money, and hassle!

Pakistan will enter into the Hague Convention on March 9, 2023, and Senegal will join on March 23, 2023. They will become the 123rd and 124th countries to join the Hague Convention, which was originally signed in 1961. According to the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), “The purpose of the Convention is to abolish the traditional requirement of legalisation, replacing the often long and costly legalisation process with the issuance of a single Apostille certificate by a Competent Authority in the place where the document originates.”

Countries that are not party to the Hague Convention usually require an apostille (either from the Arizona Secretary of State or the US Department of State) plus an authentication from that country’s consulate or embassy. That additional authentication adds a lot of time, expense, and hassle to the document-certification process.

More and more countries are joining the Hague Convention all the time, and we will keep updating this space as they do.