The Honorary Consulate is not authorised to administer oaths or process visa and passport applications. Parties requiring these services are to consult the Embassies in the region.
The Honorary Consul is permitted to certify and authenticate documents used for trade and business. Legalisation (or certification of document authenticity) means verification of signature and seal of a document. Traditionally it is performed by a Consular Officer so that documents drawn up in one country would be legally valid in another one. For the authorities of the Republic of Latvia to accept public documents issued in foreign countries, those documents should be legalised at the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or a diplomatic or consular mission of the Republic of Latvia in the respective country, or their authenticity should be certified with an Apostille in a competent institution of the foreign country, unless other procedures are in place between Latvia and the respective country.
The authentication of document authenticity is regulated by several international conventions and intergovernmental agreements, and also by the Document Legalisation Law and the Regulations for Public Document Legislation of Latvia.
1. If a document is issued in a foreign country which has joined the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Documents of 5 October 1961, its authenticity must be certified with an Apostille by the competent institution of the relevant country, and the document is valid for submission to Latvia’s institutions without any other certification.
2. If a document is issued in a foreign country which has not joined the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Documents of 5 October 1961, it must be legalised by diplomatic/consular mission of Latvia in the relevant country or by the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, after their authentications by the competent institutions of the relevant country (the foreign ministry or a diplomatic/consular mission of the relevant country).
3. If a document is issued in the member states of the European Economic Zone and the Swiss Confederation, it does not required any additional authentications (legalisation or Apostille) for their use in Latvia.
