The Bahamas Embassy, Beijing is also responsible for the authentication/legalisation of documents for use either in The Bahamas or in a Country that is not party to the Apostille Convention.


Background
The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, the Apostille convention, or the Apostille treaty is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. It specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states. Such a certification is called an apostille (French: certification). It is an international certification comparable to a notarisation in domestic law.

The following countries/territories  are party to the Convention:
•    Albania,  Andorra,  Antigua and Barbuda , Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan
•    The Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei, Bulgaria
•    Cape Verde, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic
•    Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic
•    Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia
•    Fiji, Finland, France
•    Georgia, Germany, Greece, Grenada
•    Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary
•    Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy
•    Japan
•    Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
•    Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg
•     Macau, Macedonia, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro
•    Namibia,Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niue, Norway
•    Oman
•    Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal
•    Romania, Russia
•    Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland
•    Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago,Turkey
•    Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States,Uruguay, Uzbekistan
•    Vanuatu, Venezuela


Costs
Authenticating or legalising a signature or seal costs $20 US Dollars.Each additional signature or sub-page costs $10 US Dollars. Uniting and Sealing of Documents costs $10 US Dollars.


Process
For documents originating in The Bahamas (for use in China)
–    Bahamian documents must first be certified and signed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nassau
–    Ministry Officials’ signatures can then be verified by The Bahamas Embassy, Beijing
–    Once the documents have been verified and sealed by The Bahamas Embassy, they are forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PRC, where they are verified and sealed.
–    Once the documents have been verified and sealed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PRC, they may be used in China

If the documents are for use in a country other than China the process will be similar.  Please contact the Embassy directly to discuss the process. 

For documents originating in China/Non-participating Countries (for use in The Bahamas)
–    Foreign documents must first be certified and signed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PRC or the relevant agency in the non-participating country.
–    Ministry Officials’ signatures can then be verified by The Bahamas Embassy, Beijing
–    Once the documents have been verified and sealed by The Bahamas Embassy, they may be used in The Bahamas.

Documents originating in a participating Country may be used in another participating Country once they have been apostilled. An apostille can only be obtained from the legal authority in the Country where the document originated.

You may find the Application for Legalisation by clicking documents.