The word "legalization" is often misunderstood as "stamped by... (Notary/Embassy/etc.)".
Legalization/Apostille means the verification of authenticity of a document for cross-country usage.
Who knows how a document in country XXX looks like and whether it's real or fake?
Think: birth cirtificate from a small town, issued in 1950.
None of this confirms the actual content, i.e. whether the person was actually born in 1950 or maybe in 1949 or never... it only confirms that the document itself is an original.
Two procedures are available. If
both countries (origin/destination) are member states of the Apostille Treaty, then Apostille is enough. Otherwise, full Legalization is required.
1) "Full" classic Legalization:
Step 1: Original brought to the
[Court | Ministry of Justice | or similar, depends
] at origin country.
They have the full archive of all specimens (sample signatures), stamps, formats etc. and can varify whether the document is an original or fake. The authenticity is confirmed with a permanently attached sticker on the back side of the original document.
Sample for such a sticker from Indonesia:
Step 2:
The Original with the attached sticker on the back (see above) is brought to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They can verify the sticker for authenticity (but they would not know whether the signature of a 1950 birth certificate is true or false)
The authenticity is confirmed with a permanently attached
second sticker on the back side of the original document.
Sample for such a sticker from Indonesia:
Step 3:
The Original with the attached two stickers on the back (see above) is brought to the Embassy of the destination country (but at origin). They can verify the sticker of the Foreign Ministry for authenticity (but they would not know whether the signature of a 1950 birth certificate is true or false, and also would not know or be able to verify the first sticker from the Court/Ministry of Justice)
The authenticity is confirmed with a permanently attached
third sticker or stamp/writing on the back side of the original document.
Step 4:
Document is used at destination country and they can verify the sticker/stamp of the embassy (but they would not know whether the signature of a 1950 birth certificate is true or false, and also would not know or be able to verify the first sticker from the Court/Ministry of Justice, or the 2nd sticker from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at origin).
2) Apostillation (also referred to as "simplified Legalization"
Fantastic that Indonesia finally joined the treaty!
Only Step 1 and Step 4 of the above procedure are needed.
No need to bring the document to the Foreign Ministry or the Embassy at the origin country anymore.
The destination countries will be able to verify the stamp of the origin Court/Ministry of Justice without the need of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Embassy to "bridge".
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Surat Keterangan Laporan Perkawinan is a document with a specific form.
Looks like this: