Legalization validates a foreign public document by verifying the authenticity of the signature and the legitimacy of the signing authority. Legalization does not certify the content of the document.
The Hague Apostille is a simplified procedure that has the same purpose as legalization and is applied between the States party to the Convention of 5 October 1961
, which abolished the requirement to legalize foreign public documents.
In general, unless a specific rule provides exemption from this obligation, all foreign public documents must be legalized or apostilled to be valid in Spain, and all Spanish public documents must be legalized or apostilled to be valid abroad.
Only original legalized or apostilled documents (or true copies issued by the same body that issued the original) are admissable. Legalized or apostilled photocopies cannot replace the original document.
The legalization or apostille has no expiry date, but if the document has a time-limited validity, that of the legalization or apostille shall be equally limited.
Legalization of foreign documents at the Consular Office
Legalisation of Cameroonian documents: legalisation procedure for Cameroonian civil registry certificates and court judgments.
Certificates must first be legalised by the Cameroonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MINREX (based in Yaoundé and with an antenna in Douala). If it is not possible to legalise the original document, a copy of the certificate (not a photocopy) issued by the same Civil Registry that issued the original certificate may be legalised.
Once the document has been presented to the Consular Section of this Embassy, you will be provided with a list of lawyers who will carry out the verification and whom you should contact directly. You should provide the lawyer of your choice with the appropriate documentation, which they will then verify and send to this Consular Section, once it has been verified. It will be the lawyer who will inform you that the verified document has been deposited with the Consular Section in a timely manner.
The following documents must be submitted to the lawyer of your choice:
1) original certificate and a simple photocopy thereof;
2) copy (not photocopy) legalised at MINREX;
Payment will be made directly to the lawyer of your choice, without the involvement of the Consular Section. We reiterate that this is a strictly private service in which the Consular Section does not intervene.
Once the verification has been carried out (approximately 3-4 weeks), and if the lawyer indicates that the document is true, the legalisation will be carried out at the Embassy. The payment of the legalisation application fee at the Embassy (5,000 FCFA - 7.62€ - per document) will be made at that time and it is non-refundable.
Please note that, in the case of university diplomas, this Consular Section reserves the right to request verification of their authenticity prior to legalisation for those cases where it is deemed necessary.
Timetable:
Days for delivery of documents for legalisations: Monday and Wednesday from 09:00 to 10:30.
Days for collection of legalisations: Tuesday and Thursday from 09:00 to 10:30.
For appointments, please send an e-mail to emb.yaunde@maec.es.
Legalization of documents issued by the Consular Office
The documents issued by this Consular Office must be legalized by the local authorities to be accepted as valid for their purposes.
Documents issued by Embassies and Consulates cannot be apostilled.
Obtaining an apostille for foreign documents
None of the 3 countries included in our Consular demarcation (Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic) are included in the Hague Convention.
The Hague apostille is the exclusive competence of the authorities of the country issuing the document. Documents apostilled by the authorities of the issuing country do not require any additional procedure from the Consular Office, and may be presented directly in Spain.
The text of the Convention of 5 October 1961, which abolished the requirement to legalize foreign public documents, together with the list of States party to the Convention and the authorities in each State competent to apostille a document is available at the following link:
https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/full-text/?cid=41
In the European Union, Regulation 2016/1191 exempts the interested party from the apostille requirement in certain cases. For more information, consult the European Union information page or the Regulation
Legalization or apostille of Spanish documents
Information on how to legalize or apostille documents issued by the Spanish authorities is available (in Spanish) on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation.
The Consular Office does not legalize or apostille documents issued in Spain.