Legalising documents 

The Finnish authorities may ask you to legalise a foreign document. This should be done in the country where the document was issued.

  1. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the issuing country certifies that the document is genuine and has been issued by its authority
  2. The competent Finnish mission in the country legalises the document by appending to it a certificate proving the right of the official at the country’s ministry for foreign affairs to issue such certificates.

Service fees

Legalization of documents issued in Zambia

The embassy of Finland in Lusaka legalizes documents issued in its domain of responsibility which are to be presented to the authorities in Finland. The embassy can only legalize original documents.

  1. Translate the original document into Finnish, Swedish or English if it has been issued in any other language. In case the translation is done outside of Finland, the translation should also be legalized. A translation made by an authorized translator in Finland (Opens New Window) does not need to be legalized.

  2. Legalize the original document and its translation (if necessary) in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the country of issuance. 

  3. Send a scanned copy of the legalized document and its translations to the embassy by email. The embassy will confirm whether the documents can be legalized. Please do not bring or send any documents to the embassy before it has been confirmed by email that the documents in question can be legalized. Please note that the Embassy cannot legalize documents which are laminated. 

  4. Pay the service fee (Opens New Window). The service fee in Zambian kwachas is subject to changes in accordance with monthly exchange rates. Detailed payment instructions will be send by email.

  5. Bring or send the documents to be legalized to the embassy. The embassy recommends sending any documents by a commercial courier as the operation of local postal services is not reliable.

  6. Legalized documents can be picked up from the embassy in person or by a commercial courier.