Legalisation of documents

Do you have to bring the document yourself? No, anyone can bring your document.

Attention, as of January 16, 2023, all legalization requests must be submitted to TLScontact.

You can make an appointment with TLS on their website or by phone +9611977031. The first appointments can be booked as of January 1, 2023.

TLScontact offices are located at the following address:
City Center, Martyrs Square, Opera Building, Ground Floor
Beirut, Lebanon

Concretely, this means that any request for legalization of a Lebanese or Syrian civil status document (already legalized by the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs) will have to be submitted to TLScontact. TLS will take care of the reception and retrieval of the documents, the collection of the service fees (5€ per document, destined to TLS) as well as the legalization fees (20€ per document, destined to the Embassy), the prima facie verification of the documents to be legalized and the transmission of the documents to the Embassy. The Embassy remains solely responsible for the legalization as such. The legalized documents will be returned to TLS who will contact the applicants by email for collection.

The fees are payable in dollars cash to TLS, at the exchange rate decided by the FPS Foreign Affairs and communicated to TLScontact.

Please note that the original document and its translation count as two documents.

Legalization of Lebanese documents

For civil status documents issued by the Lebanese authorities or other competent foreign authorities (birth certificate, marriage certificate, divorce certificate...) one should request a "CERTIFIED TRU COPY or “EXTRACT" of the original document from the competent authorities.

Legalization of Palestinian documents of Lebanon

For those of Palestinian origin: contact the Bureau for Palestine Refugees Affairs (address: Rue El Khattab Omar, Ras El Nabeh, Beirut, Tel: 01/646734) in order to obtain the documents in the form of a "CERTIFIED EXTRACT" of the original.

The legalization process for Lebanese/Palestinian documents takes 72 H after the documents have been submitted at the Consulate.

Special procedure for legalization of Syrian documents

The Consulate general of Belgium in Beirut is competent for legalisations of civil status documents issued by the Syrian authorities (birth certificate, marriage certificate, divorce certificate...) One should request a "CERTIFIED TRU COPY" or “EXTRACT" of the original document from the competent authorities.
 

Procedure:

1. Legalization of the original document by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Syria
2. Legalization by the Syrian Embassy in Beirut
3. Legalization by the Lebanese Foreign Ministry in Beirut
4. Legalization by the Consulate General of Belgium in Beirut (with translation by a sworn translator in one of the national languages).

The legalization process for Syrian documents takes 7 calendar days from the date the documents have been submitted at the Consulate.

All documents to be legalized should be translated in French or Dutch and legalized by the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (stamp in French of this ministry).The Embassy will legalize the signature of the competent person at the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. You can find a list of sworn translators, proposed by the Embassy, but not mandatory, below.

One should regularly consult the consular fees to know the used exchange rate.

Questions and answers about the legalisation of documents

For legalisation from abroad, you can also consult the website of our representative at the location concerned, i.e. Belgian embassies and consulates

In order to further refine your question, you can also use the Search criteria