On 14 June 2022, the online application system of Apostille in Indonesia was legally launched by Mr. Yasonna Hamonangan Laoly, the current Minister of Law and Human Rights of Indonesia, in Bali. By this enactment of the online application system of Apostille, Indonesia is now facing the new system of Apostille.
As a background, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (“MOLHR”) Regulation No. 6 of 2022 on Apostille Legalization Services on Public Documents (“MOLHR Regulation No. 6 of 2022”) is effective as of 4 June 2022, as an implementing Regulation of Presidential Regulation No. 2 of 2021 on the ratification of The Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legislation for Foreign Public Documents (“Apostille Convention”), making Indonesia one of the 122 member states of the Apostille Convention. The online application system of Apostille then being launched on 14 June 2022.
To summarize, below are the regulations that relates to the current application of Apostille in Indonesia:
MOLHR Regulation No. 6 of 2022
Under the MOLHR Regulation 6/2022, the Apostilling process shall be conducted for public documents which are produced in Indonesia and will be utilized in other foreign countries if those countries are state parties to the Apostille Convention.
Types of documents needs to be apostilled in Indonesia before use it in foreign countries:
- Documents deriving from an authority or official relating to national courts or tribunals, including those deriving from public prosecutors, court clerks, or bailiffs;
- Administrative documents;
- Documents which are issued by notaries; and
- Official certificates which are attached to documents which are signed by persons in his civil capacity, such as certificates which record the application of a document, or which record the validity period of a document in a certain date, and ratification of signatures by officials or notaries.
The exceptions for the above documents are:
- Documents which are signed by a diplomatic official or consular;
- Administrative documents which is directly related to commercial and custom activities; and
- Documents which are issued by the public attorney as a prosecuting agency as mentioned in Presidential Regulation No. 2/2021.
In practice, based on official of the MOLHR currently there are 66 documents which may be apostilled, deriving from documents produced by Ministries, Government Agencies, and Public Officials (such as notaries or sworn translators). Private documents which are produced not by a public official may not be apostilled by the MOLHR.
Apostille Process
Apostilling documents needs to be requested electronically to the Directorate General of General Law Administration of the MOLHR, to which the applicant must go through a procedure and fill out a form which consist of at least (i) the identity of the applicant, (ii) identity of proxy (if application is conducted by a proxy), (iii) destination country of the document which will be utilized, (iv) type of document.
As of 14 June 2022, the apostille application can be accessed through https://apostille.ahu.go.id/.
The Apostille process itself can be through other individual assistance with a legal power of attorney in which becomes one of the documents to be submitted through the application system.
The MOLHR will then conduct verification for the apostille request and will verify that that the application form is in accordance with the supporting documents, the conformity of signature of the official, stamp, and/or official seal on the documents with the specimen in the database of the directorate General of General Law Administration, and/or validity of an electronic signature in an electronic document. For the request of an apostilling, the applicant must pay an apostille fee within 7 days after receiving a notice of payment by the MOLHR.
In the event that the MOLHR rejects a request for apostilling, due to unconformity found in the verification process, the applicant may conduct a re-application, or the MOLHR may notify the applicant to fulfil further requirements or request additional documents, if necessary, which should be completed by the applicant within 7 days after receiving such notification
Fees:
The fees for application of Apostille to the MOLHR is considered as non-tax state revenue, which at the time of writing this article, the Ministry of Finance have not been officially enacted any regulations, however based on the confirmation of government officials from the MOLHR on 14 June 2022 noon, the fee is around Rp 150,000. The enactment of the Ministry of Finance Regulation is planned to be conducted on the night of 14 June 2022.
Apostille Certificate:
After approval of the Apostille request, the applicant may acquire the physical Apostle certificate which can only be produced by the MOLHR Office[1]. To acquire the certificate, the applicant must also bring along the original or legalized copy of the document which is requested to be apostilled in order to retrieve the physical certificate.
The Apostille Certificate itself is equipped with certain security features to ensure its authenticity, which includes holograms, QR Code, embossed signatures, and metallic adhesives, making it easily authenticated by the country of destination.
Below is a chart of the general Apostilling process in Indonesia:
Metalaw Notes:
The MOLHR Regulation 6/2022 is to set up and to simplify the process to utilize public documents issued in Indonesia to be used and applied in foreign countries. However, up to this date, there is no clear procedures on how the application and use of foreign public documents in Indonesia with the process of Apostille itself, on whether the documents being apostilled can be used directly in Indonesia or on how the checking on whether the apostilled documents are originals or not and then can be used in Indonesia.
With regards to documents from Indonesia, while the Apostille process may be conducted online, however it is worth noting acquiring the physical Apostille certificate can only be produced in the MOLHR office in Jakarta, which means that while the process is shortened, applicants from across the country must still travel to Jakarta to acquire the Apostille Certificate. Nevertheless, officials from the MOLHR have confirmed the possibility production of the Apostille Certificate may be done in the MOLHR regional offices and also the possibility of the sending the Apostille Certificate through mails. However, those plans are still not clear yet to be implemented. Thus, the individuals need to retrieve the Apostille Certificate by themselves (or through a power of attorney) in the MOLHR Office (Ditjen AHU) in Jakarta.
Furthermore, there is still an unclarity with regards to private documents, for example Power of Attorneys and agreements which will be utilized abroad and vice versa, as based on the list of the documents that we obtained, it sees that the process of Apostille only applies to documents issued by authorities and be considered as public documents. However, a notarial deed is included into the list of the documents. It gives a slight of understanding that once a private document is issued under the notarial deed form, it can be through apostille procedures. We have submitted the question with regards to this matter to the official of MOLHR. Based on their response, they seems to agree that the private documents can also be submitted for apostille through the application of MOLHR, however, they also understand that the application itself still request the name of the public official issuing the document. We hope that the MOLHR can be further update the application to accommodate this matter in the near future.
For further information, please contact:
MetaLAW, Legal Consultant, Jakarta, Indonesia
general@metalaw.id
[1] Regulation No. 6/2022 provides that retrieval and production of the Apostille Certificate may be conducted at (i) Central MOLHR Office (Jakarta) and (ii) MOLHR Regional Offices. However, at the time of writing this article, the retrieval and production of apostille certificates may only be conducted at the MOLHR Central Office in Jakarta.
