Consular Document Certification for Chile in 2024

Yes, that’s correct. We’re not mistaken! We’re talking about consular certification, not apostille stamping!

On December 16, 2015, Chile signed the Hague Convention for certifying foreign official documents and, on August 30, 2016, it went into effect for the country. As of the indicated date, document certification started being by way of apostilling them (a simplified certification procedure).

In April 2023, the Migration Service of Chile announced the necessity to be able to check the authenticity of apostilles placed on documents online. For instance, it's impossible to check an apostille on Russian documents from abroad even in the case that there is a QR code on a document. For that reason, certain disagreements unfortunately occurred between agencies in Chile, but somehow documents from Russia did pass the checks. The situation has stemmed from some political happenings: citizens of other countries have encountered the same problem as well.

In July 2023, the Migration Service decided to switch to the option that was used prior to 2016, namely – consular certification.

Consular certification of Russian documents for Chile involves the following stages:

• a notarial copy of the original document;
• a translation into the necessary language;
• a notarization of the translator's signature;
• certification of the notary officer’s signature at the Ministry of Justice;
• certification of the signature of the Ministry of Justice employee at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• certification of a signature of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs employee at the Chilean Consulate.

The procedure is standard for all countries that haven't signed the Hague convention. As far as Chile has indeed signed the Convention, the Ministry of Justice or Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia won’t accept documents for certification if it clearly follows that it will be used on the territory of Chile (or if you, as the applicant, tell them that yourself). You’ll have to mention another country that has still not yet become a participant of the Convention.

The consular fee of the Chilean Consulate is 12 dollars. Certification, as a rule, is completed on the same day.

After the documents are ready, they will have to be mailed off to Chile. They can be sent directly to the Migration Service Department. Another option is formalizing a notarial copy from any Chilean notary that has enhanced electronic signatures and upload the scans to the migration service website. In order to do everything correctly, you must acquaint oneself closely with the requirements of the Chilean agency that you are preparing the documents for.

As a whole, you can say that the procedure for preparing Russian documents for Chile has grown a lot more difficult, but it's fully doable if you handle it as professionally as we do. Our company has specialized in consular certification for over 15 years now (since long before all the disturbances and relocations) and we will be happy to help you complete any bureaucratic procedures you need done.