What is legalization?

To clear up any misunderstandings, legalisation is a simple administrative formality that confirms the authenticity of a signature, but which does not give authenticity to its content.

Legalisation can only be done on original documents or certified copies and some of them are of limited validity.

A legalisation is usually only one step in a series of legalisations, which must be carried out in a specific logical order, depending on the origin of the document.

The Federal Public Service of Justice has developed a convenient brochure (FR) on this subject.