Apostille for a UK Court Order: FCDO Legalisation Guide

A court order from the United Kingdom is sometimes required abroad: recognition of a judgment, family proceedings, inheritance matters or enforcement overseas. The foreign authority will not simply take the document at face value — it wants confirmation that the order is genuine. The FCDO Legalisation Office provides that confirmation by attaching an apostille. This article describes when a UK court document can be apostilled, what the office checks, and how the route and costs work.

Which court documents the FCDO can apostille

The Legalisation Office verifies UK documents against its own records before legalising them. Its list of eligible documents includes paperwork from the courts: a document issued by a court and sealed with a wet ink court seal can be legalised. This covers the classic court papers — sealed orders, judgments and certificates that come from the court with the official seal — because the seal and signature are exactly what the office compares against its records.

Documents that circulate as photocopies or printer output without the wet ink seal will fail verification. If you only have a digital copy, ask the court or tribunal that made the order for a sealed copy before applying.

One boundary matters at the start: the service covers documents issued in the UK. Documents issued outside the UK cannot be legalised here — a judgment made in another country must be apostilled by that country’s designated authority.

The paper route

A court document signed with a wet ink seal is a paper document, so the paper-based apostille is the normal route: the office verifies the seal and signature against its records, attaches a stamped apostille certificate and returns the document by post or courier. After applying online, official guidance says the applicant will be told how to submit the documents and where the legalised documents will be returned.

The process, step by step:

1. Ask the issuing court or tribunal for a closed (wet ink) sealed copy of the order or judgment.
2. Confirm with the receiving authority that an apostille is what it needs, and whether a certified translation must follow.
3. Apply online for a paper-based apostille and pay the per-document fee.
4. Send the document to the Legalisation Office as instructed.
5. The office verifies the seal, attaches the apostille and returns the document; the recipient can afterwards verify the apostille online.

Timing and costs

The standard paper-based service usually takes up to 25 working days, plus courier or postage time — the current timeframe is shown during application. Faster paper options with quicker processing are available to registered businesses. The official fee is £45 per document, plus courier or postage costs. An e-Apostille exists (up to 2 working days, £35 per document) but it is limited to documents uploaded as PDFs electronically signed by a UK notary or solicitor, so a sealed wet-ink court order normally stays on the paper route. If the document cannot be legalised, the fee is not refunded.

Courier return costs are additional on the paper route (from £6 per 1.5kg for UK addresses), and legalised documents currently cannot be sent by courier to certain restricted destinations — a deliverable return address abroad, or the e-Apostille where available for notarised copies, is an alternative.

What to confirm before applying

• Whether the foreign court or authority wants the sealed original or a certified copy, and whether the document must be sworn or translated after the apostille.
• How many documents the recipient expects: where an order is accompanied by other court paperwork, each document is charged separately unless they are legalised as an apostille batch.
• Whether the receiving country is part of the apostille convention, or whether it sets its own consular route.

Summary

A UK court order or judgment is apostilled by the FCDO Legalisation Office when the document is issued by a court and sealed with a wet ink court seal, which the office verifies against its own records before attaching the apostille. The normal route is paper-based: £45 per document plus courier costs, usually up to 25 working days plus postage time, with the apostille verifiable online by the recipient. Confirm the sealed copy, the recipient’s requirements and the deliverable return address before applying.

Apostilla UK editorial team · checked 31 October 2026