Notarial services

Blake Morgan has notaries operating out of its Portsmouth, Southampton and Oxford offices, whose main role is to verify and certify the authenticity of documents, transactions and facts in a manner that will be accepted by public authorities overseas.

In many countries, in order for a document to be accepted, it may also have to be 'apostilled' as well as certified by a notary public.  This will require the document to be presented to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who check the credentials and the signature and seal of the notary and affix a certificate or 'apostille' on the notarised document.  The Foreign and Commonwealth Office charge for this process and it generally takes 4-5 working days for the document to be apostilled and returned although it can take longer.

In addition, some countries require full legalisation which requires the document to be produced to the country's consulate in the UK. Each consulate makes a different charge for this process and timescales vary greatly.

Our notaries are familiar with these requirements and will advise you accordingly although usually you will be told by the person who requires the document what level of additional certification is required.

Our notaries will be pleased to organise the legalisation process for you.

It is very important that these requirements are complied with fully failing which the document may not be accepted and the transaction or application will be delayed.

Charges for notarising documents will typically depend on:

For London-based enquiries, please visit the Notaries Society website and they will be pleased to provide a list of local notaries from which to choose.

For further information about how we can help and the costs involved, please contact our Notaries:

Allen Townsend for Southampton office enquiries

Michael Profit for Portsmouth office enquiries or call 07899 065230.

Kathryn Woodward for Oxford office enquiries.