Legal Services
Further Information on Apostilles
An apostille is the legalization of a public document, such as birth, marriage, divorce or death certificate. Consular section is not authorized to provide apostilles or assist in obtaining such. Effective October 15, 1981, the United States of America became a party to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents. Finland is also a signatory to this Convention.
The Hague Legalization Convention abolishes the need for diplomatic and consular legalization or authentication of public documents originating in one Hague country, like Finland, for use in another Convention country, like the United States. Instead, public documents bearing a certificate of apostille are recognized in any Convention country with no further authentication or legalization. If you have a document which you want legalized, you should contact the competent local authority who will affix a certification (apostille) on your document. For furher information on apostille, please see attached State Department’s web link.
- List of U.S. authorities that issue apostilles
- List of Finnish authorities that issue apostilles (Maistraatti)
Public notaries or Maistraatti are located in almost every city in Finland (www.maistraatti.fi). They are able to notarize all public documents to be used in the United States, or in any other country which is a signatory to the Hague Convention. The public notary can affix the apostille which will legalize the document for use in the United States. This means that you may have your documents notarized by a Finnish notary recognized by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and these documents are acceptable in the United States. The fee for this service is approximately 8 euros.
In Helsinki Maistraatti's office is located at Albertinkatu 25, 2nd floor, 00181 Helsinki.