Letters of Rogatory are formal requests from a court in one country to “the appropriate judicial authorities” in another country that can request service of judicial documents.

Letter of Rogatory is also known as “Letter of Request”. For example, we use Letters of Rogatory when trying to serve defendants in countries that are neither parties to the Hague or Inter-American Conventions. In the case that you were trying to serve a defendant in either a State or Federal matter in the United States that was going to Cuba or New Zealand, you would use this process.

Letters of Rogatory are received and executed by foreign authorities on the basis of comity and reciprocity. This process will generally take from 9 to 12 months to process and the cost involved is much more expensive. As of 2019, the fee to the U.S. Embassy is $2,275– this fee goes directly to the U.S. Embassy in that country.