Does the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs have an Apostille service for documents?

[Jingthing]

OK, this is kind of a nerdy question but I reckon it can be important to a lot of people, and possibly me in future, so here goes.

It is my understanding that Thailand is not a signer of the Hague Apostille Convention, an international agreement about legalizing important documents; the method being in this case an Apostille.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostille

Some of us who may be leaving Thailand may need to get documents FROM Thailand that are required to hold an Apostille in the cases where the destination country is a Hague Apostille Convention signer.

Given that Thailand is not a Hague Apostille Convention signer, am I correct in assuming the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not even capable of issuing Apostilles?

If so, it would be up to the other country whether to accept the legalization process offered by Thailand, or to not accept it, if they rigidly only accept Apostilles.

A typical document needed for migrating to other countries from Thailand after residence in Thailand is an official Thailand police record report. It is possible to get those while you are still residing in Thailand or even after you have left Thailand (online ordering).

But that document does not hold an Apostille.

While I am using the police report as a prime example, I wasn't intending to limit this to that document, but in general any legalization needed of documents from Thailand for Hague Apostille Convention signing countries.

Following with the example though, suppose you have the police record document in your hand, so if you were in Thailand I assume you contact the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs for whatever legalization they can offer. What if you get the document while not in Thailand, can the legalization be handled through the mail? I know some will say go to the Thai embassy in your country, but I was given info from an Apostille specialist that documents needing legalization need to be done IN Thailand at the Ministry.

Clearly, I am kind of fishing for first hand reports on people who have had this issue, both with documents obtained while still in Thailand and also documents obtained while already out of Thailand.

Edited June 17, 2013 by Jingthing

[dugong]

We went through the same thing when we moved from the UK to The Netherlands. Basically, all official docs had to be translated and rubbed stamped by the MFA in BKK. The embassy in BKK then had to rubber stamp it as well.

We did the whole thing through DHL using an agent who is very good.

[Jingthing]

We went through the same thing when we moved from the UK to The Netherlands. Basically, all official docs had to be translated and rubbed stamped by the MFA in BKK. The embassy in BKK then had to rubber stamp it as well.

We did the whole thing through DHL using an agent who is very good.

Thanks for that.

Did you do all that while in Thailand or while outside Thailand?

I am still assuming there is no Apostille possible in Thailand and if a country demands it, you're out of luck.

[taxout]

The last signature in the chain will be from an official of the country where you expect to use the legalised document. That's why it will be recognised in that country, The last signature will normally be from a consular official at the appropriate embassy in Bangkok. (In some cases, you might need an additional signature from the relevant Foreign Ministry/State Department recognising the consul's signature.)

The key question in setting out to get a legalisation is what official Thai signatures does that consul recognise. Consuls of different countries might differ on this point: most will probably recognise only the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but some might recognise signatures of other Thai officials. So your starting point should be the embassy of the country in which you plan to use the legalised document. The US embassy says it wlll legalise documents that bear the seal of the Thai Foreign Ministry.

Perhaps a know-nothing bureaucrat somewhere might insist on an apostille, who can rule ignorance out, but the apostille system replaces the age-old practice of legalisation only where both countries involved are party to the treaty.

Edited June 18, 2013 by taxout

[Jingthing]

I think you are probably right that it would usually be POSSIBLE to legalize a Thai origin document for an apostille country without an apostille. However, it could be extremely inconvenient if you are already out of Thailand. I am wondering how often people are forced to travel back to Thailand just to legalize one document.

Edited June 18, 2013 by Jingthing

[taxout]

Legalising a document is a real hassle even when you're in the country. That's why the apostille was invented.

In some countries, like the US, there are private services which will handle all the paperwork of getting something legalised.

In Thailand I suppose you could ask a law firm to handle it, unless there's a private service out there.

[Jingthing]

Yes, hassle is the right word for it for sure.

There is yet another potential issue around this.

Different countries require legalized documents to be quite fresh.

For example, Ecuador won't accept any legalized document older than three months old.

For people considering a move to Ecuador from Thailand, given all the complications on both sides, that might be rather a road block.

[MJCM]

<snip>

In Thailand I suppose you could ask a law firm to handle it, unless there's a private service out there.

I think any translator can handle this for you (mine did)

4 Documents including Translation, stamped at MFA (express fee) and stamped at Embassy 11.000 THB, saved us going and staying in BKK for a couple of days

[dugong]

We went through the same thing when we moved from the UK to The Netherlands. Basically, all official docs had to be translated and rubbed stamped by the MFA in BKK. The embassy in BKK then had to rubber stamp it as well.

We did the whole thing through DHL using an agent who is very good.

Thanks for that.

Did you do all that while in Thailand or while outside Thailand?

I am still assuming there is no Apostille possible in Thailand and if a country demands it, you're out of luck.

We were outside Thailand, just DHLed everything. It wasn't an apostille, however, as the Thai government had stamped it, as well as the Dutch government (through the embassy), this was recognised as being similar to an apostille by the Dutch authorities when we moved here.