When it is necessary to grant international validity to legal documents, affidavits or notarial certifications, the correct government address for performing the task is the secretariat of the authorized courts throughout the country. Obtaining a court apostille is intended to verify the authority and signature of the lawyer or notary who prepared the original document, or alternatively to confirm a judgment and judicial decisions issued by the various courts in Israel. This procedure is completely different from the verification of public certificates by government ministries, and is carried out according to a strict list managed under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice. A common mistake is attempting to sign original birth or marriage certificates in the courts - an action that will lead to an immediate procedural rejection, since these bodies do not hold the signature database of Population and Immigration Authority officials.

The fundamental difference in the distribution of powers requires lawyers and private citizens to accurately map all the paperwork in the case before going into the field. While official government documents are processed exclusively in Jerusalem, documents drawn up in the private sector or judicial decisions will always be referred to the authorized secretariats of the judicial system. The need for such legal validation frequently arises in complex international procedures, such as submitting documents for an apostille for a Portuguese passport or arranging powers of attorney with foreign missions. To save valuable time, running between counters, and long waits, it is recommended to seek the help of professionals who offer a home apostille service – a service that centralizes the collection, performs the correct bureaucratic separation between the instances, and returns the documents when they are completely ready for presentation abroad.