Notary Public in Basel

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1
Dear all,

I have a question about finding a Notary Public in Basel. I need to notarize the “Power of Attorney” document from my home country and obtain the “Apostille” from the Swiss authority.

In this case, can I request the “Justiz- und Sicherheitsdepartement des Kantons Basel-Stadt” for both the notarization and the Apostille Seal? Or, do I need to find a Notary Public in the city and ask this person to get the “Apostille Seal” for me? I am just afraid that it would be quite expensive for the second option.

On the website of the “Justiz- und Sicherheitsdepartement des Kantons Basel-Stadt”, it states that “Apostillen können nur für Unterschriften von Behörden und Notaren ausgestellt werden.” I am a bit confused and hope that you could give me some advice.

Thank you very much!

2

In Kanton Zurich there is a notary in the Staatskanzlei that can do that for you. I ́d imagine there is something similar in Basel?

https://www.zh.ch/de/politik-staat/beglaubigungen.html

3
Thank you roegner! I wish you a nice day!

4

You are looking for the Beglaubungsburo.
Here are the details:
https://www.bdm.bs.ch/

5

It is a two step process:
To the notary to notarize your signature.
To the respective cantons office to “notarize” the notary’s signature and stamp with the apostille.

Note, if you go to a BS notary you must get the apostille from BS. And if you go to a ZH notary you must get the apostille from ZH. Similar for all the other cantons. Notary cost depends on canton, what you have to sign and its “value”:

A simple signature legalization costs only CHF 20.

An affidavit for abroad costs you at least CHF 200 in BS.

6
Hello aSwissInTheUS,

Thank you very much for the information provided! I am glad to know at this stage that I'll need to find a notary first, and then go to the canton office.

I think I don't need an affidavit for abroad, because I will ask a law firm in HK to prepare the “Power of Attorney” for me.

Thanks again for letting me know the procedure. I will try to find a notary in Basel!

7
Most towns have a public notary. I pay 20 CHF for the notarisation of the signature, no idea what the apostille costs though.

Check the website from the Gemeinde Basel?

Edit: just saw that was said already, sorry.

8
roegner, do you mean I can just go to the "Bevölkerungsdienste und Migration" and get both notarization and apostille?

9
No idea how it works in Basel. For the notarisation I just go to the Gemeindenotar. I haven‘t done the Apostille through the Staatskanzlei yet but it seems to be easy and straight forward.

10
Ok! Thank you very much!

11
No.

Your notary would need to bring (or mail) it to your canton's main city for the apostilla.

Tom

12
Thank you, Tom!

(for me, this matter is a bit complicated to handle as I am not familiar with the system here...)

13
Dear all,

I just wanted to give you a quick update about getting a document legalized in Switzerland. I have already got a power of attorney legalized and the Apostille at the Beglaubigungen office in Basel. The staff handled the issue for me efficiently as it just took 15 minutes. The cost in total is CHF 35.

Thank you to all of you who gave me advice before!

Wishing you a nice day!