Apostille vs. Embassy legalisation for Chile
Two routes exist for sending a British paper abroad. One is the apostille: a single certificate that the FCDO Legalisation Office fixes to your document to confirm the signature and seal already on it. The other is the older consular chain, in which a foreign mission adds its own stamp after the government has. Only the first route applies here, and that single certificate is the whole of document legalisation for Chile.
Chile's Hague status and what it means
Chile joined the Apostille Convention in 2016, and the United Kingdom has been in it since 1965. Both sides therefore sit inside one treaty, and each agrees to take the other's certificate at face value. What that removes from your timetable is a whole second stage: an apostille from United Kingdom to Chile arrives ready to use, rather than as a paper still owing a mission visit.
The Edinburgh to Chile route step by step
Begin with whoever made the document. Scottish civil records come from Edinburgh Registration Service, which issues certified extracts of births, marriages and deaths; company papers come from the firm or the court that drew them up. The Legalisation Office then takes the file by post, adds its certificate and posts it back. An apostille issued in Edinburgh for use in Chile is the same certificate as one obtained anywhere else in the country.
Cost and timing for this route
The government charges £45 per document by post, or £40 per document on the next-working-day service, which only registered businesses may use. The standard window runs up to 25 working days, plus the time the post takes in each direction. Where the paper is going does not move that price: the fee for Chile is the fee for anywhere, because the office is stamping a British signature rather than judging a foreign one.
What the Chilean side looks at
The certificate answers one narrow question for the reader in Chile: is the signature on this paper genuine? It says nothing about the content, the wording or whether you have brought the right document at all. Those rules belong to the body that asked you for it, and they sit outside the stamping chain. Everything you need for an apostille for Chile is therefore the paper, the fee and the postage — the rest is that body's own list.