The apostille is the legalization of a public official’s signature validating a document. It must be registered in the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs database or the competent entity in the country where it was issued. The apostille certifies the legitimacy of the public official’s signature stamped on the document but does not certify its content. A document must be apostilled when the country in which it will take effect is a party to the 1961 Hague Convention on the Abolition of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents.