Taking evidence in England and Wales
as a commissioner for Foreign Courts

Process for commissioning evidence to foreign courts

The following 5 steps outline the general procedure for providing foreign courts with documentary evidence from England and Wales:

1. Payment of the consular fee.
2. Documents will need to be submitted to and processed by The Foreign Process Section (FPS).
3. Documents will be forwarded to the FCDO in London where processing may take up to 10 days.
4. The documents will then be sent to the relevant British Embassy/High Commission overseas within two weeks.
5. The British Embassy or High Commission overseas will pass your documents to the host country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs within 10 working days.