Any document which is required submission to governmental bodies in the territory of a foreign country has no legal force until it is properly legalized. All official documents issued in foreign country have legal force only on the territory of that country; outside the same documents will not have any legal force. That is what the legalization of documents serves for to provide validation outside the country where the documents have been issued.
There are several methods of documents legalization and application of one or another method depends on which country the document is submitted. In case if the state is a member of The Hague Convention 1961, then the procedure of legalization comes to apostil stamping, namely apostilization. Otherwise, the council legalization shall be made, this procedure is carried out in the consular department of the country for which this document is indented for.
The Hague Convention gives the following definition of legalization: formal procedure used by diplomatic or consular agents of the country for which the document is to be submitted, for certification of authenticity of signature, quality, person acted who signed the document, and in appropriate case the authenticity of seal or stamp by which this document was sealed.
