Apparently in Spain (I don't think all EASA CAA's require it), every document issued outside Europe should be autenticated with the Hague Apostille. This seems to be 'necessary' because the spanish CAA cannot check if the hours were actually flown (while in spain the authority can check the technical logbooks of the airplanes to cross-check)
This is a two steps process:
- The instructor signs the hours certificate (a document that states that you flown X hours, Y as Dual, Z as PIC, etc), with a notary.
- You bring the notarized document to the department of state, and it verifies that the notary was valid, and issues the apostille.
Has anyone else gone through this? Unfortunately I have 45 hours flown in the U.S. that are not valid in Spain until I got the apostille (which is unlikely because the u.s. school does not bother to go to the notary service).
Does anyone know an alternative to this?