Griffin Solicitors

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS (DFA) & APOSTILLE

There are currently 3 options being offered by the DFA as follows:

1. Walk-in Service (Dublin and Cork Offices)

Dublin Office

42 – 47 Lower Mount Street, Dublin 2. The service operates on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and is closed on Wednesdays. No walk-in service will operate on Wednesday. Any documents brought in on Wednesday will be treated as a drop-off document.

Opening hours are:

9.30 am – 12.30 pm 2.30 pm – 3.30 pm

A maximum of five documents can be authenticated / apostilled while you wait. If you have more than five documents, they will be returned by post at a later date, or you can request collection. They will advise when documents are ready for collection.

If large bundles of documents are broken into smaller bundles by the same organisation, these will be treated as drop-off bundles as above. For example, if twenty documents are broken into four groups of five by the same company.

Cork Office

1A South Mall, Cork, T12 TA46. The same rules apply to the Cork Office as the Dublin office as above, with the exception of opening hours.

The opening hours are Tuesday and Thursday mornings only, between 9.30 am – 12.30 pm.

2. Postal Service

I am currently getting reports of turnaround times closer to three days at the moment.

Documents are to be sent by registered post, you should make a note of the tracking number. Documents will be returned by registered post at no additional cost.

Post documents to:

Authentication Section Consular Division Department of Foreign Affairs 80 St. Stephen's Green Dublin 2 D02 VY53

For Munster Region Only Authentication Section Consular Division Department of Foreign Affairs 1A South Mall Cork T12 TA46

3. Drop-off Service (Dublin and Cork Offices)

Documents can be dropped in to the DFA offices. The envelope MUST be marked for the attention of "Authentications Section". A cover letter and the appropriate fee are required. They will be returned by registered post. Or you can request collection in your cover letter, and they will phone you when they are ready. If you have more than five documents at the counter, your documents will be treated as the walk-in service, and they will be returned by post.

The envelope MUST be marked for the attention of "Authentications Section".

There are three drop-off locations in operating between 9 am – 4 pm weekdays.

Two in Dublin:

Authentications Unit, Knockmaun House, 42-47 Lower Mount Street, Dublin 2
Authentications Unit, Iveagh House, 80 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2

One in Cork:

Authentications Unit, 1A South Mall, Cork

Irish Nexus

The position of the Faculty of Notaries Public in Ireland is that it is the notarial act, signature and seal thereto that benefits from the legalisation process. This has been continually raised with the DFA, but they still insist on applying a public policy requirement in relation to the documents submitted. There is a so called “Irish Nexus” requirement. This is twofold:

No “foreign document” can be included. This included foreign passports, Certificates, company documentation and court documentation. Particular care should be taken if assisting with affidavits that are to be used in foreign Courts to explain to the clients that certain exhibits may not get passed the DF’s scrutiny and their policy. This has caused understandable issues for Notaries and their appearers in the past.
There must be some Irish connection with the document. A POA signed by an American who is selling property in Spain on the face of it has no connection with this jurisdiction. The Notary can however in this circumstance add value by establishing the Irish connection by inserting details of the American’s residence in Ireland.
NEVER allow the words “Republic of Ireland” appear anywhere on a document. Ireland or Éire is the correct description. Don’t let this slip past you.

Translations

Ensure that in a dual language document that there is no use of the word translation. The DFA prefer the word “version”.

Where a document is in a language other than English or Irish the DFA insist upon a Translation of same by a “Recognised” translation company. There is no such list of “Recognised” translators. It would appear that the DFA are satisfied once the translation company is a registered company in this jurisdiction.

Emergencies

In my experience the DFA have been very accommodating in the event of an emergency. The procedure here is to contact them by phone or e-mail setting out the urgency and they will arrange an appointment for you or the appearer to attend be that during or outside normal working hours. They are usually very accommodating.