We know you’ve heard it before, but we promise once you try to get your documents legalized yourself, you will know why we tell our clients to outsource the document legalization process! The process is incredibly complicated and confusing for someone who only has one set of documents to legalize. There will likely always be an obstacle that comes up along the way that will have you thinking to yourself “I should have had this outsourced.” And unfortunately, at that point, you’ve already wasted time trying to do it for yourself!
Let’s start at the beginning. Document Legalization is a process during which documents are navigated through an assembly line of notarizations, certifications, and authentications so that these documents can be used in foreign countries to transact business. From that list alone, you can see where all the hiccups can come up along the way.
There are a few simple reasons as to why we recommend having this process outsourced.
- It’s a waste of your time. It can take hours to figure out the right process for document legalization based on what country you are working with. The worst part is not every country has the same process so if you are doing this for multiple countries…multiply those hours! It will always be better time spent for team members to spend time on the core responsibilities of their job vs. the difficult one-off process of document legalization.
- It takes longer. This is often the BIGGEST reason companies and people outsource this process. For outsiders where this isn’t their full time job, the process can often take 2-3 weeks at least. When working with the right service providers, the process can be cut down significantly! On average it will only take up to 4 business days for an outsourced service to get the same documents legalized.
- Better tracking abilities. One of the biggest complaints we hear when companies and people try to do this themselves is they have no idea how to track what the status is of their documents being legalized. Good news about using an outsourced service is that the service provider is going through those doors daily and can easily be the boots-on-the-ground to know what’s going on with your documents.
- Process is always changing. One of the benefits about using an outsourced provider is they can stay-up-to-date on the ever-evolving process of document legalization. This process can change frequently and without warning. You don’t want to have to monitor this on your own.
We hope this helps you think through whether it makes sense to outsource this process before you go down the lengthy and twisty road of trying to do it yourself!
Washington Express is more than happy to help with the process of apostille or authentication. Contact us today for a consultation!
