Legalization of Canadian Documents

Canadians have the same right to apply for residency and obtain the same benefits as any other nationalities. They will be able to apply as retirees, rentiers, foreign investors, business people, missionaries, spouses and workers.

Basically the difference with US & British citizens or some other nationalities is regarding the legalization of their documents.

Because Canada it is not part of The Hague Convention for Public Documents of 1961 (Apostille) documents have to be authenticated to be legal in Nicaragua.

Every single document to be legal and valid to apply for residency such as: birth certificate (long version), police record, pension letter, marriage license (when it is necessary) naturalization certificate (when it is necessary) have to be authenticated and translated.

1) The first step will be to notarize the documentation; then it must be sent to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development of Canada first/Global Affairs Canada. After that legalization or authentication, the document has to be send to the Nicaraguan Embassy to be authenticated by the Consulate.

Nowadays there are two options to continue the authentication:

a) It could be authenticated in the new Nicaraguan Embassy in Ottawa,

Their address is: Embassy of Nicaragua in Ottawa 104 Black Maple Private

Rockcliffe, ON K1M 0T7 Tel: 613-252-5880

embanic.ca@gmail. com

b) It could be authenticated at the Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington:

Telf........... : 001-202-939-6531

From .......: Monday to Friday 9:00am - 1:00pm

Address : 1627 New Hampshire Ave NW Washington DC 20009.

2) The documents have to be translated to Spanish by a certified translator.

3) After the authentication in Canada or USA, documents have to be authenticated at the Nicaraguan Foreign Affair Ministry in Managua. We will take care of this last step in Managua.

4) Both Consulate accepts pre-paid envelop to be sent to TIFER & ASOCIADOS office in Managua directly. Just be aware that our offices have moved to Villa Fontana, from Club Terraza 2 km South, Plaza San Sebastian, Office A – 8 Managua.

5) Be aware too that the Nicaraguan government requires original from the documents in order to apply for residency.

Please take into consideration that when a foreign person comes to Nicaragua receives a tourist Visa which will last depending of their nationality.

Canadians citizens receives Visa by 90 days which can be renewed for another 90 days, if during this time it is in the process to obtain residency it will be mandatory to renew the Visa until the Residency is granted and receive the Residency Card or Cedula. There are immigration offices in the main cities of Nicaragua and extension can be obtained in any of them.

The testimony below is from a Canadian who already obtained his residency as retiree, and because he was from the Province of Ontario he didn´t send his documents to Ottawa. Please check with your government.

"Authentication. Good day Paul, I hope that you are doing well. I have just returned to Nicaragua. During my stay in Canada, I collected the doctor´s letter, the police report, my birth certificate, and the statements for two different pensions. First I had them notarized, then I had the Ministry of Government Services in Ontario certify the notarized copies. After doing so, I phoned the Nicaraguan Consulate in Washington D.C. to find out where I should send the notarized, certified documents to be authenticated. I was told to send them to the Washington Consulate, because it has jurisdiction over residents of the province of Ontario in Canada. In the package of documents which I sent to Washington, I included a pre-paid FedEx envelope with your name and address on it, which the consulate will use to forward the documents once it has authenticated them."

*** Nowadays, the Police Record can be substituted for an Interpol Certificate, which can be obtain in Managua, it cost $ 30 and usually takes 2 weeks to be ready and also the Health Certificate can be obtain in a Nicaraguan "Centro de Salud" near the area that the applicant is based in Nicaragua. Both are in Spanish and do not require any other legalization.