Terms and conditions and privacy policy

By using this legalisation service you agree to our privacy policy and to these terms and conditions. Please read them carefully.

Terms and conditions

General

These terms and conditions affect your rights and liabilities under the law. They govern your use of, and relationship with, the legalisation online service. They don’t apply to other services provided by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), or to any other department or service which is linked to in this service.

You agree to use this site only for lawful purposes, and in a manner that does not infringe the rights of, or restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of, this site by any third party.

We may occasionally update these terms and conditions. This might happen if there’s a change in the law or to the way this service works. Please check these terms and conditions regularly, as continued use of the legalisation online service after a change has been made is your acceptance of the change. If you don't agree to the terms and conditions and privacy policy set out in this document, you should not use this service.

Applicable law

Your use of this service and any dispute arising from its use will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales, including but not limited to the:

  • Computer Misuse Act 1990
  • Data Protection Act 1998
  • Mental Capacity Act 2005

How to use this service responsibly

You must provide a valid email address and contact number when using this service. We need these details to provide information about your application, including follow up questions when necessary, so you must provide accurate details where we can reliably contact you.

Please note that when using the premium business service you'll have to pass through Security upon arrival and you should expect your belongings to be checked.

There are risks in using a shared computer, such as in an internet café, to use this digital service. It’s your responsibility to be aware of these risks and to avoid using any computer which may leave your personal information accessible to others. You are responsible if you choose to leave a computer unprotected while in the process of making a legalisation application online.

We make every effort to check and test this service whenever we amend or update it. However, you must take your own precautions to ensure that the way you access this service does not expose you to the risk of viruses, malicious computer code or other forms of interference which may damage your own computer system.

You must not misuse our service by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our service, the system on which our service is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our service. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack.

Disclaimer

While we make every effort to keep this service up to date, we don’t provide any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to the accuracy of the information on the site.

While legalisation staff will give you as much advice as they can, it is your responsibility to ensure that you are obtaining the correct service and that you supply all the necessary documentation for the service. If you are unsure, you may wish to take legal advice before making an application.

Our consular fees are not refundable, and are subject to change without notice. Check the relevant consular fees list opens in new window for the latest information.

Privacy policy

Information provided by this service

We work hard to ensure that information within this service is accurate. However, we can’t guarantee the accuracy and completeness of any information at all times. While we make every effort to ensure this service is accessible at all times, we are not liable if it is unavailable for any period of time.

In order to use this service, you'll need to enter personal information. Such information includes your name, contact details, details of your documents and the addresses to which you want documents returned. We use this information to deliver the legalisation service. If you choose to create an account for repeat use of this service, you'll have the additional option to store payment details and preferences. This service may contain free-text fields in which you are invited to enter additional comments relating to the selected service. You should not enter sensitive information into these free-text fields. Sensitive information may include, but is not limited to, details of medical history, religious beliefs and financial information. Entering sensitive information into these fields is done at your own risk, and the FCDO is not liable for this.

How we use your information

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office uses and retains the personal data of legalisation applicants for the purposes of the reliable and secure provision of this service. Your feedback is important to us to help improve our service delivery. If you consent to provide feedback, you may be contacted by us or by our partner research agency. You may opt out of this when making your application.

You have the right to request details as to the personal information we hold for you; and subsequently request that we correct any personal information if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date.

Separately from the information entered by those using this service, we also collect site usage information which allows us to see how the service is being used in order to allow us to improve it. This information does not contain any personal data. It includes:

  • questions, queries or feedback you leave, including your email address if you send a message via feedback
  • your IP address, and details of which version of web browser you used
  • information on how you use the site, using cookies and page tagging techniques to help us improve the website

This helps us to:

  • improve the site by monitoring how you use it
  • respond to any feedback you send us, if you’ve asked us to
  • provide you with information about local services if you want it

We can’t personally identify you using this site usage data.

Where your data is stored

We store your data on our secure servers in the European Economic Area (EEA). However, it may also be stored outside of Europe, where it could be viewed by our staff or suppliers, and because of the global nature of the internet infrastructure we can't guarantee that information sent by email will be kept within the EEA. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this.

We use other suppliers to provide this service:

Keeping your data secure

Transmitting information over the internet is generally not completely secure, and we can’t guarantee the security of your data. We do however use SSL in order to encrypt all data transferred to and received from our server.

We take data security very seriously and we take every step to ensure that your data remains private and secure.

Any data you transmit is at your own risk

We have procedures and security features in place to try and keep your data secure once we receive it.
We won’t share your information with any other organisations for marketing or commercial purposes, and we don’t pass on your details to other websites.

Disclosing your information

Please be aware that the Legalisation Office may need to share information, data or facts contained within your documents with the relevant authority or individuals for legal purposes or for the purposes of authentication and verification. By submitting your application you grant us the authority and consent to do so.

We may pass on your personal information if we have a legal obligation to do so, or if we have to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements. This includes exchanging information with other government departments for legal reasons.

Storage and retention of data

If you complete a legalisation application, the personal data you have submitted will be held securely as a historical record of your application. The financial information you have supplied will be held for 18 months.

Data Protection Act 1998

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office holds and uses data for purposes notified to the Information Commissioner under the Data Protection Act 1998 (which may be viewed on the Information Commissioner's Office opens in new window website). Such personal data may be disclosed to other UK Government Departments and public authorities.

Disclaimer

We don’t accept liability for loss or damage incurred by users of this service, whether direct, indirect or consequential, whether caused by tort, breach of contract or otherwise. This includes loss of income or revenue, business, profits or contracts, anticipated savings, data, goodwill, tangible property or wasted time in connection with this service or any websites linked to it and any materials posted on it. This condition shall not prevent claims for loss of or damage to your tangible property or any other claims for direct financial loss that are not excluded by any of the categories set out above.

This does not affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, nor our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.