Legalization procedure in the Republic of Ireland
In our practice we need to use here in Bulgaria, documents concerning your case, that are initially issued in Ireland, like power of attorney, various declarations, Grant of Probate issued by the High Court, birth or death certificate, maariage certificates, documents issued by the Companies Registration Office or the Chambers of Commerce, etc.It is important to know that these documents are subject of official authentification in order to be used in another country – Bulgaria, because these are issued in your spoken language which is not a primary in our country, and an official Authority at the country of issuing the document, should certify the signatures, i.e. the author, so the document could be considered as genuine when used later in Bulgaria.
If you live in Ireland and have to provide to us documents issued initially there, then please choose one of the 2 available options to get the document witnessed / legalized, depending of which one is more convenient for you:
OPTION 1
1. You should print out the documents previously forwarded by us to you. With these printed documents, and holding your passport, you should visit the nearest practicing notary public (or a solicitor) in your area, and sign the printed out documents before the practitioner. He will only have to witness your signature, namely to write down "witnessed by me" and verify that the passport data in the documents is correct by signing stamping the documents, where putting their name and practicing address/ business stamp. There should be verification of the signatures on the documents only .
2. After the have been signed by you and the solicitor/notary, you should scan them and send them to one of our emails in order us to verify that everything is correct (alternatively you could fax copies of them to 00359 52 655668).
3. The documents then should be posted to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Dublin with a request for additional legalization (this is a specialized authentification procedure which will allow the documents to be used abroad, according the requirements of the Hague Convention of 5th October 1961 abolishing the requirement of legalisation for foreign public documents); what they do, is to confirm that a signature, seal or stamp on an Irish public document is genuwine.
In case that you prefer to send the documents by post the address is: Consular Section, Department of Foreign Affairs, 80 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2
*Documents sent by post must include the following: A brief covering letter stating your name, return address, telephone number, you must state what country the document(s) are for use in, and you must include the appropriate fee.
Tel. (01) 408 2174; (01) 408 2322; (01) 408 2061; (01) 408 2576
For the Munster area: Consular Services, Department of Foreign Affairs, 1A South Mall, Cork
Tel : 021 4944765 / 021 4944766
The opening hours for the Public Offices in Dublin and Cork are as follows:
Monday - Friday (excluding Bank Holidays) - 0930 – 1300; 1430 - 1600
Fees: A fee of €20 is charged for each Apostille or Authentication. There is a standard fee of €50 for a series of Apostilles or Authentications in relation to inter-country adoptions.
*Please note that there may be an additional administration fee if applying for these services from our offices abroad. Fees will be notified on request.
Methods of Payment: This section relates to services available at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin and Cork. Payment can be made by Cash, Cheque (made payable to 'Department of Foreign Affairs'), Postal Order, Bank Draft, or by Credit\Debit card. It should be noted that all cheques must be drawn on an Irish bank.
If you want to present the documents in person, their office address is: Consular Section, Department of Foreign Affairs, Hainault House, 69 - 71 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2
4. Once they have returned to you the legalized documents with apostil, please post the originals to our office
OPTION 2
1. You should print out the documents we have forwarded to you, and holding your passport with you, then you should visit the Bulgarian embassy in Dublin in order to sign the documents before the Bulgarian consul there.
Below we have enclosed the contact details of the Embassy of Bulgaria in Dunlin. consul in the Embassy of Bulgaria in London, the UK (below we have enclosed their full contact details). What you should do is appoint a meeting at least one day before the visit with request for verification of your signature, You should sign the documents before the Bulgarian consul, who will witness your signature as entitled to do this kind of verifications against small standard fee. The documents we have forwarded to you are prepared also in Bulgarian so no further translation is need. Witnessing the documents by our Consul is the end of the legalization process and no further authentication of the documents is needed, i.e. once done, these can be used directly in Bulgaria.
Address: Bulgarian Embassy in Dublin, Ireland
22 Burlington Road
Dublin 4
Ireland
Telephone (+353) 1 660 3293
Telefax (+353) 1 660 3915
E-mail BulgarianEmbassyDublin@eircom.net
bgemb@eircom.net
Website http://www.mfa.bg/en/35/
Head of Mission Dr. Emil Savov Yalnazov, Ambassador
2. Once they have returned to you the legalized documents with apostil, please post the originals to our office.