Legalisation of documents

How to legalise a document.

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General information

A document that is official and legal in one country is not necessarily official and legal in another. Many documents must therefore be legalised if you wish to use them abroad.

The legalisation process involves checking the origin of the relevant document. Legalisation is official confirmation that the signature of the civil servant that has signed a document, or the seal or stamp on the document, is legitimate.

It is not only the signature of the person that has issued the document that is legalised, the process can also legalise the signature of the legalising registrar. Every signature, every seal and every stamp will be legalised by the person authorised to do so and who is familiar with each signature, seal or stamp. This explains why various legalisations are sometimes required, in a specific order.

A country may have signed up to a legalisation treaty that encompasses agreements about how countries accept one another's official documents. Many countries have signed up to the 'Apostille Convention' of The Hague of 5 October 1961. With this, just one legalisation is required via an apostille stamp.

Pakistani documents to be used in Belgium need to be legalised by the Belgian Embassy in Islamabad, as Pakistan still needs to implement the 'Apostille Convention' to which it has acceded in 2023. For more information on the Pakistani position, please see: Pakistan’s Accession to Apostille Convention - Ministry of Foreign Affairs (mofa.gov.pk).

For more general information concerning legalisation, please see: How can foreign documents be legalised for use in Belgium? | FPS Foreign Affairs - Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation.

Pakistan 

Legalization of documents as part of visa applications. All documents as part of a visa application file for long stay have to be legalized first (however, for diplomas, degrees and transcripts, please see below). The visa applicant sends the documents to the Embassy of Belgium in Islamabad via the Visa Application Center (VAC) of Gerry’s International to be legalized. Once the documents have been legalized, they will be sent back via the VAC to the visa applicant, who submits a complete visa file with the application form and all the supporting documents.

Afghanistan

We do not currently legalize any Afghan documents. Documents submitted as part of a visa application will be accepted in the state in which they are presented to us.

On October 19, 2020 a new digital legalisation procedure has been initiated under the name of LegalWeb. Concretely, a sticker is no longer affixed to the legalised document but a bar code and a legalisation number (or file number in case of multiple legalisations) is communicated on an apart sheet. In order to check the status of your legalisation/file, you can consult LegalWeb and enter your reference number as well as the date.

Documents for legalization can only be submitted in or via 3 centres of Gerry’s International: Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore (see Addresses of Gerry’s International – Visa Drop Box).

How to proceed if you want to get Pakistani documents legalized by the Belgian Embassy:

Pakistani documents for legalization

  1. Be presented in original version.
  2. Be original Pakistani documents attested by Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  3. No ordinary photocopies will be accepted for legalization, only CERTIFIED TRUE COPIES by the national authorities.
  4. Your signature on a document can be legalized. Be aware that you will have to come in person to the Embassy for legalization of your personal signature. Bring your ID card and/or passport and take an appointment.

Diplomas, degrees and transcripts submitted in the framework of a student visa application are always to be attested by the Ministry of Education, more specifically the Higher Education Commission, and subsequently by the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs. While these documents should in general not be legalised by the Belgian Embassy, the rules and procedures of the Belgian higher education institution concerning admission/enrollment must always be observed and might nevertheless require legalisation of documents. It is up to the student visa applicant to enquire about these rules and procedures, as it is up to the higher education institution concerned to accept or not the documents put forward.

Translation of the documents

1. AFGHANISTAN: Original documents from Afghanistan are translated into English. 

2. PAKISTAN: All documents duly attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan have to be accompanied by a certified translation. Original documents from Pakistan should be translated in one of the national languages of Belgium: French and Dutch. There is an exception for visa applications: documents drawn up in English do not need to be translated.

  • Translation into French is possible in Pakistan and must be done by one of the 3 “Alliances Françaises” settled in Pakistan (Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore) (see addresses below). The original Pakistani document and its translation into French, both legalized by the Embassy, will be directly accepted by a Belgian French speaking administration.
  • For the moment, no recognized institution in Pakistan offers the service for translation into Dutch. Therefore, documents to be used in a Belgian Dutch speaking administration might need to be translated a second time into Dutch once in Belgium.

Both the original document and translation should be legalised by the Embassy.

Addresses:

Mode of submission of the documents to be legalized

Documents to be legalized cannot be sent directly to the Embassy. They will not be handled. The following procedure must be strictly followed without any exception.

1. Submission from Pakistan through 'Gerry’s International - Visa Drop Box' (NEVER by ordinary mail). A list with the addresses of Gerry's/Fedex dropbox facilities is provided here. Payment of the fees must be done at Gerry's/Fedex itself.

2. Submission via representative who should be provided with an authorization letter and a good quality copy of your passport or identity card in order to be presented to the Gerry's/Fedex office. Payment of the fees must be done at Gerry's/Fedex itself.

3. Submission from abroad (Iran, Belgium or any other country)

In order to help people living in Iran, Belgium or any other country, who don’t know anybody who can submit documents on their behalf in Pakistan or who can’t come to Pakistan, a special arrangement with Gerry’s International Pakistan has been settled in this regard.

The applicant should contact Fedex / Gerry’s International at following e-mail address feedback@gerrys.com.pk or can also call at +92-51-2285843, to know complete charges of legalization (Gerry’s & Embassy charges).

Then, in return e-mail, Fedex / Gerry’s International will inform the applicant about their complete charges which the applicant will transfer to the below mentioned bank account. These charges will include:

  • Legalization charges for the Embassy
  • Fedex / Gerry’s International service charges
  • Courier charges per applicant for returning of documents

Once the exact amount (as told by Fedex / Gerry’s International) has been  transferred, then the applicant will send the payment proof to Fedex / Gerry’s International and will send documents to be legalized by the Embassy at the following address:

Address

Gerry’s International
Gerry's building, Adjacent to Punjab Cash & Carry, Chathabakhtawar, Chakshahzad, Park Rd 
Islamabad, Pakistan  

Gerry’s Call center Numbers: 
Call Center number: 0900-07860 
For mobile callers: 9999 
E-mail: feedback@gerrys.com.pk

Documents to be sent

All documents have to be sent in original, must be correctly attested by the Pakistani Ministries of Foreign Affairs.

Price

Embassy fee for Legalization: 20 € per original document & 20 € for each separate certified true copy & 20 € for translation. No translation gets legalized without a valid original document.

Do not forget to send to FedEx the payment proof with the documents to be legalized.

Mode of payment 

Bank Account details are as under: 

          Bank Name: Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited 
          Bank Address: Main Branch, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi - Pakistan 
          Account Name: Gerry’s International Express (Pvt.) Ltd. 
          Account Number: 01-4977629-01 
          Currency:  PKR (Pak Rupees) 
          Swift Code: SCBLPKKX
          IBAN: PK91 SCBL 0000 0014 9776 2901

It is pertinent to mention here that the applicants must take accurate bank account details as given above to ensure that they do not face any delays or problems. Forwarding of payment proof via email is must after which the applicant’s case will be accepted and entered in the computer system for onwards forwarding to Belgium Embassy. 

    Consular fees

    The original document legalized by the competent authorities will be legalized by the Embassy. The translation certified by Alliance Française will also be legalized. The consular fees for legalizations have to be paid only to Fedex. Refer yourself to the CONSULAR FEE section in order to find out how much the current consular fee for legalization is.