Certification, Legalisation & Apostille Services
FROM 1ST APRIL 2023, THE CHAMBER WILL BE MOVING TO PLAIN CERTIFICATES OF ORIGIN AND WE WILL NO LONGER ACCEPT PRE-PRINTED BLACK CERTIFICATES. FOR FULL GUIDANCE ON THIS, CLICK HERE AND ALSO CHECK OUR FAQ BLOG HERE
Due to our team receiving a large number of enquiries about the status of their applications, we are kindly asking customers to refrain from chasing the team about the 'approval' of your application(s) unless the processing /turnaround time for the service you chose is up. This will help us reducing bottlenecks and provide a better service to you. So before phoning, emailing or coming by our office, can we ask customers to please:
1. Check our certification services levels first and if you require a quick turnaround, please opt for our priority, premium priority or walk in services in your application.
2. Refresh your e-cert browser regularly so you have the latest status on your application
3. If you chose standard service or priority, please note we normally send post on 1st class, if you require royal mail tracked special delivery, make sure you choose this option on your application under 'Delivery methods'. We also ask customers to regularly check Royal Mail updates about potential strikes, as these will affect our delivery times.
4. When you also require legalisation and apostille services, please note these will add additional 5-10 business days to your application.
If the processing time is up for your application, then please do email us in the first instance clearly indicating the application number. A member of our team will get back to you as soon as they can providing an update.
We thank you in advance for your understanding.
GMCC Trade Team
March 2023
Our team can support traders with all the below services acting as one single point of contact and we do all the processes below on your behalf.
What does Certification mean?
Our experienced team can certify a wide variety of documents including export invoices, agency and distributor agreements, packing lists and health certificates to name a few. Effectively the team certifies that information or a signature on a documents is correct by stamping and signing the documentation you have provided.
What does Legalisation mean?
The legalisation of a document is performed by an embassy, after the documentation has been certified by our Team. The legalisation will normally show as an additional postage style stamped on the document.
The definition of apostille is 'the authentication of a document for use in another country'. The apostille certificate therefore confirms the signature, seal or stamp on a UK document to be genuine so that it will be accepted when presented to another country outside the UK, and it is issued by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). The actual certificate is a piece of paper approximately 15 cms square, which is permanently glued to another document.
What can our team can certify, legalise, notarise or arrange Foreign and Commonwealth Office Apostille?
We can do so for a wide range documents but to give you an overview see the list below:
-
Freight Invoices
-
Commercial Invoices
-
Packing Lists
-
Export Price Lists
-
Health Certificates
-
Certificates of Conformity
-
Certificates of Free Sale
-
Hajj Certificates
-
Certificates of Analysis
-
Pre-shipment Inspection
-
Certificates Distributor Agreements
-
Certificates of Formulation
-
Engineers Reports
-
Certificates of Incorporation
-
Agency Agreements
-
Powers of Attorney
-
Quality Certificates
-
Trade Mark Certificates
-
Certificates of Registration or Incorporation
-
Cargo Manifests
-
Marine Transport Documents
-
Certificates of Free Circulation
-
Memorandum and Articles of Association
-
Certificates of Change of Name
-
Deed of Assignment
-
Letters of Appointment
-
Certificates of Good Standing
-
Authorisation of Agents
-
Sale or Purchase Contracts
-
Employment and Services Contracts
Do we need to be members of the chamber to use your services?
No, our services can be accessed by both Members and non-Members of the Chamber.
Members of the Chamber, however, can get up to 50% off on most of our certification services. For a list of current prices and service levels, click here.
If you are thinking to be a regular user, you will save money by joining membership and you will also access a wider range of benefits, to learn more about these, please click here.
How to set up an account
-
Make sure you read and understand our Standard Rules & Certification Service Levels
-
Complete and submit to us a signed copy of a Formal Undertaking & specimen of signatures . Please ensure you send a physical copy(ies) to our Airport Office at Room 7, Building 308, World Freight Terminal, Manchester Airport M90 5PZ and you can also send scanned copies to exportdocs@gmchamber.co.uk. Please note you must renew your Formal Undertakings annually.
-
Register in our eCert platform and submit your document(s) electronically. Whilst we offer a standard service (chamber prints and post documents to you), we strongly recommend companies to use the express service when available (most countries), as this will save you posting time and money.
Need further information or guidance?
For general enquiries about our services, contact our Airport Office Docs team at 0161 489 3170 or the Elliot House Trade Team at 0161 393 4314, or email them at exportdocs@gmchamber.co.uk
If you need to speak to someone specifically from our team, check our Team's page for further contact details.
Step by Step Group or individual sessions
If you need help with completing a UK certificate of Origin, EUR1 or ATA carnet, you can book a one-to-one session with a member of our team emailing us at exportbritain@gmchamber.co.uk or calling at 0161 393 4314. Or check our event's page for the latest step by step workshops we may have coming up. We are running regularly UKCOO/EUR1s and ATA carnets workshops.
We value your feedback and is paramount to us for improving our services. Please complete this short 1-min satisfaction survey.