Apostille vs. Embassy legalisation for Nigeria
An apostille and embassy legalisation both prove a UK document is genuine, but they are not interchangeable, and Nigeria specifically wants the second of the two. Wolverhampton apostille for Nigeria is a slightly misleading way to think about the process, because the certificate the Legalisation Office issues is only the first half of what Nigeria expects to see attached to a document. The second half, legalisation by the Nigerian High Commission, is a separate stamp added afterwards, and skipping it leaves a document that looks complete but is not.
This two-stage shape is common for destinations outside the shorter apostille-only group, and Nigeria sits firmly in that group. An apostille issued in Wolverhampton for use in Nigeria is still a necessary first step, since the Nigerian High Commission expects to see the UK authentication already in place before adding its own; the two stages run in sequence, not as alternatives to choose between.
The two-stage route from Wolverhampton
The document itself comes first. A civil record such as a birth, marriage or death certificate should be a fresh certified copy, which Wolverhampton Register Office, at the Civic Centre on St Peter's Square, issues so the family's own original stays at home. A company or education record instead goes forward as the version already signed or sealed by whoever issued it. That paper then travels by post to the Legalisation Office (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) at PO Box 6255, Milton Keynes, which authenticates documents from every part of the UK.
Once that first certificate is fixed to the page, the bundle is not yet finished for Nigeria: it still has to go on to the Nigerian High Commission for its own legalisation stamp before the document is complete. This is the step that separates a Nigeria-bound document from one heading to a country where the apostille alone is sufficient. Only once both stages are done is the paper ready to be sent on to whoever in Nigeria asked for it.
What Nigeria specifically asks for
Nigeria's own requirement centres on that second stamp: an official document arriving without the Nigerian High Commission's legalisation attached is routinely treated as incomplete, however genuine the underlying paper is. What tends to matter to the receiving office in Nigeria, once both stages are done, is the ordinary content of the record itself, correct names and dates, and the specific detail it certifies. A birth certificate for a family matter and a set of company papers for a new branch both need the identical two-stage treatment before either is accepted.
An official fee applies at the Nigerian High Commission stage on top of the Legalisation Office's own charge, though this page cannot state a figure for that second fee since it is set by the High Commission itself rather than the UK office. Building both stages, and both fees, into a plan from the outset avoids the surprise of discovering the apostille was only ever the first half of the job.
Cost and timing for the UK stage
The Legalisation Office charges £45 per document through standard post, or £40 per document through the next working day express service, which is limited to registered businesses. Each document is charged separately, so a batch sent together is billed per item rather than as one flat rate for the whole parcel, and postage on both legs is a further cost outside these figures.
Standard turnaround for this first stage is up to 25 working days, and that clock runs before the second stage at the Nigerian High Commission even begins, so the overall timeline for a Nigeria-bound document is longer than the UK figure alone suggests. A registered business under real time pressure can shorten the first stage with the express service, though the second stage's own timing sits outside the Legalisation Office's control and this page's figures entirely.