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Written by Jose Alejandro
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1. The Notary Public. If you are in Panama and you need to authenticate any documents, you need to go before a Notary Public. They will certify that the signatures in a document are authentic, that a document is a faithful copy of its original or that the document was “given” before him as a sworn declaration of intention. You don’t have to make an appointment unless it’s a lengthy procedure like a Will or Testament or give a sworn declaration. There are Notary Publics all around the country and you can use any of them, no mater where you live, where you are or what you wish to do.
2. The Consulate. You use the consulate of a country only when you are abroad and a document has to be sent to the country that the Consulate represents. The Consul will authenticate your signature on the document. When that document gets to that country, the Consul’s signature must be authenticated by the Exterior Relations Office or its equivalent, so that it’s valid and may be used for legal or official purposes. If you can’t find a Panamanian Consulate near you, you can mail the documents to the nearest one. But, Panama laws state that if you don’t have a Consulate near you, you can authenticate a document at the Consulate of a country that is friendly to Panama. The problem is that the term “friendly country” is not defined, so you might want to give the Consulate a call to see if they are friend or foe.
3. The Apostille. It’s a form of legalizing documents not very well known amongst U.S. or Canadian citizens. This procedure saves you a lot of time and money. The Apostille is an international form of authentication, given out by the Departament of State or Exterior Relations Department of specific countries. Once you authenticate a document before the Notary Public, you take it to the Exterior Relations Office or equivalent and have it Apostilled. Once you have that seal, that document can circulate freely in any of the member States of The Hague Convention without going to any additional authority within the countries. So you don’t have to go through all of the requirements or procedures specified in point 2. For a list of member States please go to http://hcch.e-vision.nl/index_en.php?act=conventions.status&cid=41.
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