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Legalization of signatures of or documents issued by a Canadian Notary Public
The German Consulates in Toronto and Vancouver offer the legalization of documents, contracts or certified signatures that have been officiated by a Notary Public in Canada if a German authority requires further legalization. These documents need to be authenticated first by the competent authority in the Province prior to the legalization.
For authentication of signatures, the document must bear a note by the notary public that states that it was signed in front of him/her and that the signee presented an official photo ID. Only the original signature and seal of the notary public are accepted. All pages pertaining to one document must be connected in a way that makes it impossible to separate them without damaging them (seal or cord).
We recommend to check with the German authority or lawyer that demands the document whether they will accept a legalization. In some cases, they require that a document is signed directly at the German consulate.
For certified copies issued by a Canadian notary public, the following must apply before the consulate can legalized the document:
- The confirmation of authenticity by the Canadian notary public must include a statement by the notary public that the originals of the documents were presented to him/her and that s/he compared the originals with the copies and verified that both specimen were identical.
- This statement by the notary public must be connected to the verified copies in a way that makes it impossible to separate the documents without damaging them (seal or cord).
