Indonesia’s Ratification of the Convention Abolishing the Requirement to Legalize Foreign Public Documents

On 4 January 2021, the President of Republic of Indonesia issued Regulation No. 2 of 2021 on the Ratification of the Convention Abolishing the Requirement to Legalize Foreign Public Documents (“PR 2/2021”) (the convention is hereinafter referred to as the “Apostille Convention”).

The Apostille Convention was concluded on 5 October 1961 and is intended to simplify a series of formalities for documents signed overseas for the contracting states.

Before Indonesia ratified the Apostille Convention, every Indonesian document signed overseas to be used in Indonesia had to be legalized by the relevant authorities. Now, as one of the contracting states of the Apostille Convention, Indonesia is exempt from the requirement to legalize documents to which the Apostille Convention applies.