Legalization is the process whereby a foreign official body has requested, or as part of a foreign visa application, a document is required to be authenticated before use. The number of steps in this process and which official US bodies complete the different stages varies depending on the type of document and the country where the document is to be used.
If a document is to be used in a country which is part of the Hague convention (https://www.hcch.net/en/states/hcch-members), then generally after apostille by the U.S. Department of State, no further steps are required in the process. Alternatively, it must also be presented to the country of use Embassy or Consulate in USA, for the final stage in the legalization process.
Additional certifications may be required before a document can be used in a country and it may also require translation and/or notarization services (which usually occur prior to the U.S. Department of State apostille and Embassy legalization steps). Global Visas will confirm all required certifications steps (and their order of submission), upon receipt of the order request form.
Please do see below an overview of the various different steps that, as discussed above, typically take place in a legalization requested in the US: