Authentication by Apostille
Way back in 1967 at the "Hague Convention", way before the internet, faxing and all the lovely tools that makes life so much "easier", government officials from a number of countries decided they needed to nominate certain government offices within a country to authenticate documents made by public offices. These offices would put a seal or stamp of authenticity on these documents that would tell the world that the document was indeed legitimately recognized by that country. This is important when you think about marriage licenses, deeds, court orders, degree verification and such.
Make sense?
Nowadays, some governments are requiring Apostille Authentication on documents like criminal background checks and university degrees so that they can allay their concerns that they are not being presented with something that is fake.
