An Apostille is a certificate issued by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (‘FCO’) confirming the signature and seal of the Solicitor, in accordance with The Hague Convention dealing international legal matters. The FCO now only operate a postal service to obtain an Apostille, which can take a few weeks for them to process, but are open to professional users. This usually takes 4 to 5 days.
You would normally get the document drawn up by your lawyer in the relevant overseas jurisdiction, and this is what we recommend.
We cannot generally advise on overseas law. If you require us to prepare the Power of Attorney for your use then we will do so and
prepare a standard form document for you, but this is fully at your own risk. If the document is then unacceptable to the receiving jurisdiction then you will of course incur additional expense, as well as delay, in asking either us, or an overseas lawyer to draw up the document, so it is best to get it right the first time.
We often draw up Powers of Attorney for Commonwealth (or former Commonwealth) countries, and an English Power of Attorney is accepted. We do these mostly for the Indian and Pakistani Jurisdiction.
If you require us to do this for you, then we require the following information from you:
We would recommend that you bring a passport sized photograph for each Donor, as Indian/Pakistani authorities generally like to see these affixed to the Power of Attorney.
A statutory declaration is a legal document, and is commonly used to allow a person to affirm something to be true for the purposes of satisfying a legal requirement or regulation, where no other evidence is available.
An affidavit is very similar, but it is a sworn document, and is often used for matters to do with court.
We can prepare the statutory declaration or affidavit for you. Our fees for the preparation of this type of formal legal document range between £80 and £150, depending on what is required.
You will need to let us know what guidance you have been provided with, and email to us the detail of the content of the document, and we can then prepare the document in legal form.
Sponsorship Declarations no longer (for several years now) need to have a notarial signature and seal, and can be attested by a qualified Solicitor. Our Solicitors charge £5 (cash fee) for dealing with this for you. The document needs to be fully completed beforehand, but you must not sign it until you see the Solicitor. The Solicitor will not check anything, but just require you to certify that the details you have given are correct and sign the document.
We may need to see the following original documents:
Fixed Fee Oaths, Affidavits and Statutory Declarations
Appletons Solicitors act as Commissioners for Oaths and we can act as a required legal witness for the swearing of an Oath at the fixed fee
of £ 20 and just £5 per exhibit (per person). Oaths and Affidavits are legal documents that are required for court proceedings or as part of
probate and other civil procedures. An exhibit is a document or item referred to in the Oath, Affidavit or Statutory Declaration
