Documents issued in one country to be used in another country must be authenticated (also known as legalized) before they can be recognized as valid in the foreign country. The chain authentication process is the method to legalize documents originating from or used in non-Hague Member parties, such as Taiwan.
The Singapore Trade Office will only notarize Taiwan-issued documents to be used in Singapore.
The procedure is as follows:
- Notarize the documents with a Notary Public. This step maybe omitted for documents issued by BOCA, such as the Taiwan passport.
- Notarize the documents with the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BOCA).
- Certify the document(s) with the Singapore Trade Office. The documents can usually be collected on the next working day except for requests of more than 20 documents.
The procedure for notarizing Singapore-issued documents to be used in Taiwan is as follows:
- Determine with the receiving organization in Taiwan if a translation of your document into Traditional Chinese is necessary, as this is the only accepted language for most government units. You are required to engage the services of a translation company to prepare a sworn/certified translation of your document.
- Notarize your document with a Singapore notary public, including any translations.
- Authenticate your documents with SAL (Singapore Academy of Law).
- Certify your documents with the Taipei Representative Office in Singapore.
Please consult the respective offices for the fees involved and the processing time.
