INDONESIAN LAW UPDATE: Apostille Certification of Indonesian Public Documents

Background

Apostille is a method of verifying or certifying a document for its use in another country, and essentially is the result of an agreement between the contracting states of the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in 1961 (“Convention”).

The purpose of this Convention is to remove the need for diplomatic or consular certification of foreign public documents, which is known to be time consuming and to replace it with a simple certificate issued to a specific format, known as the “Apostille Certificate”. This certificate being the Apostille Certificate which once attached to a document would remove the need for any further certification of such document when it is presented in another contracting state.

Last year, on January 5, 2021, Indonesia ratified the Convention through Presidential Regulation No. 2 of 2021 (“PR No. 2/2021”) (for further details on PR No. 2/2021, please refer to our earlier update https://zelojapan.com/en/5132 ).

Following such ratification, on January 26, 2022, the Indonesian Government issued an implementing regulation to further regulate the Apostille Certification Services for Public Documents, under the Minister of Law and Human Rights (“MOLHR”) Regulation No. 6 of 2022 (“MOLHR Regulation No. 6/2022”). The MOLHR Regulation No. 6/2022 will be effective on 4 June 2022.

Requirement

Any Documents (defined below) issued in Indonesia which will be used in other contracting states that have ratified the Convention must be Apostilled.

“Documents” in this context means any public document in the form of a written or printed letter that is signed by an authorized official as evidence of information and/or affixed with an official stamp and/or seal[1].

This includes:

1. Documents originating from an authority or official related to courts or state tribunals, including those from public prosecutors, court clerks, or bailiffs;
2. Administrative documents;
3. Documents issued by a notary; and
4. An official certificate attached to a Document signed by an individual within his civil authority, such as a certificate that records the registration of a Document, or which records a certain validity period of a Document on a certain date, and ratification of signatures by officials and notaries.

Exceptions

The Apostille certification requirement does not apply to the following documents:

1. Documents signed by diplomatic or consular officials;
2. Administrative documents directly related to commercial or customs activities; and
3. Documents issued by the prosecutor's office as a prosecution agency as stated in PR No.2/2021.

Apostille Certification Procedures

The certification of Apostille in Indonesia will be held by the MOLHR via the Directorate General of Public Law Administration of the Ministry of Law of Law and Human Rights (“Directorate General”). 

The application for Apostille is to be made online by the applicant or through its attorney by submitting: (i) an application form (available on the Directorate General’s website), (ii) the supporting documents (i.e., identification card of the applicant, or, if relevant, power of attorney (and the identification card of the attorney), and (iii) the document to be Apostilled.

The documents submitted will be verified within three working days upon receipt of a complete application. Once the verification is completed and payment of the official Apostille fee is made by the applicant, the Directorate General will notify the applicant electronically to collect an Apostilled Certificate and bring the document requested to be Apostilled.

For further information on the above, please contact this form.

Click here for the Japanese translation article.

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[1] Article 1 paragraph 2 of MOLHR Regulation No. 6/2022.

The information provided in this article does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice and is for general informational purposes only. Readers of this article should contact an attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter.