FCO Legalisation Office moves to postal applications only

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Fly to let owners and overseas property investors who currently use the counter service at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Legalisation Office in Milton Keynes face a change in the way the system works from 1 April 2011.

From that date the office will only accept applications received by post and will process all straightforward applications within 24 hours (excluding postal times).

FCO Legalisation is the official confirmation that the signature, stamp or seal on a UK document is genuine. Foreign authorities usually require this before they will allow a UK document to be used for official purposes in their country.

The legalisation does not certify the authenticity of a document or give Foreign and Commonwealth Office approval of its content but the Legalisation Office is the only competent authority in the UK to issue legalisation or apostille certificates.

Julian Braithwaite, Director of Consular Services said: “We constantly look to improve the services we offer and make them more efficient. A postal only service will halve the turn-around time for the vast majority of our customers.”

The FCO says that 60 percent of customers already submit their applications by post and the turnaround time for straightforward applications (excluding postal time) will be halved from 48 hours to 24 hours.

Business customers who submit large volumes of documents on a daily basis can pre-register to have access to a limited courier drop-off and collection facility at Milton Keynes with the same 24 hours turnaround. There is no additional cost for this facility.

For more information on service details and information on how to get documents legalised visit the Legalisation Office website at http://www.fco.gov.uk/legalisation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;