Costa Rica is one of the top vacation destinations for travelers in North America, notably Canada. Just like when traveling to any foreign country, you must know beforehand which documents need to be legalized or go through the apostille process before you leave for your trips.
Let’s take a look at a few of the steps you must complete before you travel to make sure that you have all of your bases covered and avoid any unexpected surprises when you arrive in Costa Rica.
Which Documents?
Before you leave for your trip, you need to make sure that you have all of your documents in order. Just as when you’re traveling to any other foreign country, you’re going to need to authenticate and legalize any of the following applicable documents:
– Birth certificate
– Marriage certificate
– Police criminal check certificate
– Medical report
– Passport copies
Keep in mind that which documents you’ll need to authenticate and legalize depends on your personal situation.
Apostille of Canadian Documents
Although in other parts of the world, you need to have your documents apostilled because Canada wasn’t a signee of The Hague Apostille Convention. This means that you must go through two different processes known as authentication and legalization. First, you must have your documents authenticated at Global Affairs Canada. After they’ve authenticated your documents, you’ll then take them to the Costa Rican embassy where they can legalize your documents.
The consul at the embassy will then verify the authentication stamp, seal, or signature from Global Affairs Canada and will legalize your documents after that. This process can take tons of time and can be very confusing for people that are traveling out of the country for the first time.
Unfortunately, there is no way around it. There is good news, however! We’ve helped Canadians authenticate and legalize their Canadian documents for use in Costa Rica for years! We work directly with Global Affairs Canada and the Costa Rican embassy to make the process quick and simple for you. Simple bring your documents to us, and we’ll take care of the rest!
We’re Here to Help
If you need assistance through the legalization process or have any questions, contact the Legalization Service Centre, and we’ll gladly answer any questions you may have and can make the entire authentication and legalization process easy and fast!