The Vietnam Legalisation Process: How to legalise your documents

If you’ve found yourself on this blog, then the chances are you’ve been told you need to legalise your documents for use in Vietnam. Maybe you’re moving over to start a new career, maybe you’re just doing a bit of business – whatever your reasons, since you’re on this page, I think I can safely assume that you’re trying to work out the Vietnam legalisation process.

Well, you’re in the right place – we’ll go through it in this article. Now, we’ve got some good news for you and we’ve got some bad news for you. Which one do you want first?

We’ll start with the bad news first – might as well get it out of the way. The Vietnam legalisation process is a bit of a nightmare. You’ve got to jump through loads of hoops and there are plenty of pitfalls on the way, ready to trip up the inexperienced. If you aren’t familiar with the process (and the chances are you aren’t) then it’s going to be a bit of a headache for you.

Why is the Vietnam legalisation process a headache?

So, let’s imagine you decide to work through the Vietnam legalisation process yourself. The first thing you might need to do is notarise your documents. That involves finding a solicitor who’s registered with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), arranging an appointment, and having them make a certified copy of your documents. You won’t always need to do this, though. It depends on which documents you need legalising – if you’re unsure, get in touch!

Once you’ve had your documents certified (or not, if you don’t need to) you’ll need to send them to the FCDO for an Apostille. The average wait time for your documents at the FCDO is about 2 weeks, so fingers crossed you’re not in a rush. If you’re doing the process yourself there’s no way to speed it up, unfortunately!

When you’ve got your documents back from the FCDO (probably 2 weeks later) you’ll need to send them to the Vietnamese Embassy in London for the final consular stamp. That means more waiting and the joy of dealing with an Embassy, which is never fun. They’re notoriously difficult to deal with!

What’s the good news?

Right, so that’s the bad news out of the way. Time for some good news, which fortunately blows the bad news out of the water. We can take care of the whole thing for you. Seriously. You won’t need to worry about anything but sending your documents to us. We’ll do the rest.

Using Vital Consular will make the legalisation process a million times easier for you. No worrying about the wait times at the FCDO, no trying to contact the Vietnamese Embassy in London. All you need to do is get your documents, pop them in an envelope, and send them our way. We’ll take them through the Vietnam legalisation process on your behalf.

We’re experts. It’s our job to know Vietnam legalisation like the back of our hand, and we’re so confident that we do we offer a 100% Acceptance Guarantee. You’re in safe hands.

And, if you’re short on time, we provide an urgent service that can seriously cut down the processing time. As registered members at the FCDO we have access to the business counter – an in-person, same-day Apostille service that isn’t available to members of the public. We can get you an Apostille within 24 hours of receiving them, which, if you’re in a rush, can be a life-saver.

Why make your move to Vietnam any harder than it needs to be? Why not take advantage of our 100% Acceptance Guarantee and ability to knock literal weeks off of the standard processing time? If you’re wanting to make the move to Vietnam as smooth as possible, then get in touch with us today!