Apostille Convention

The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, the Apostille Convention, or the Apostille Treaty is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. It specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states. Such a certification is called an apostille (from Latin post illa and then Template:Lang-fr). It is an international certification comparable to a notarisation in domestic law, and normally supplements a local notarisation of the document.

Procedure

Apostilles are affixed by Competent Authorities designated by the government of a state which is party to the convention. A list of these authorities is maintained by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. Examples of designated authorities are embassies, ministries, courts or (local) governments. For example, in the United States, the Secretary of State of each state and his or her deputies are usually competent authorities. In the United Kingdom, all apostilles are issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Milton Keynes.

To be eligible for an apostille, a document must first be issued or certified by an officer recognised by the authority that will issue the apostille. For example, in the US state of Vermont, the Secretary of State maintains specimen signatures of all notaries public, so documents that have been notarised are eligible for apostilles. Likewise, courts in the Netherlands are eligible of placing an apostille on all municipal civil status documents directly. In some cases, intermediate certifications may be required in the country in which the document originates before it will be eligible for an apostille. For example, in New York City, the Office of Vital Records (which issues, among other things, birth certificates) is not directly recognised by the New York Secretary of State. As a consequence, the signature of the City Clerk must be certified by the County Clerk of New York County to make the birth certificate eligible for an apostille. In Japan all the official documents are issued in Japanese language, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA, JAPAN) then provides an apostille for these documents. In India the apostille certification can be obtained from the Ministry of External Affairs

Information

File:Apostille Norway.png

An apostille issued by Norwegian authorities.

The apostille itself is a stamp or printed form consisting of 10 numbered standard fields. On the top is the text APOSTILLE, under which the text Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961 (French for Hague Convention of 5 October 1961) is placed. This title must be written in French for the Apostille to be valid (article 4 of the Convention). In the numbered fields the following information is added (may be in official language of the authority which issues it or in a second language):

1. Country ... [e.g. Hong Kong, China]
   This public document
2. has been signed by [e.g. Henry Cho]
3. acting in the capacity of [e.g. Notary Public]
4. bears the seal/stamp of [e.g. High Court of Hong Kong]
   Certified
5. at [e.g. Hong Kong]
6. the ... [e.g. 16 April 2014]
7. by ... [e.g. the governor of the special administrative district of Hong Kong, China]
8. No ... [e.g. 2536218517]
9. Seal/stamp ... {of the authority giving the apostille}
10. Signature

The information can be placed on the (back of the) document itself, or attached to the document as an allonge.

Eligible documents

Four types of documents are mentioned in the convention:

• court documents
• administrative documents (e.g. civil status documents)
• notarial acts
• official certificates which are placed on documents signed by persons in their private capacity, such as official certificates recording the registration of a document or the fact that it was in existence on a certain date and official and notarial authentications of signatures.

Legalization

Template:Main A State that has not signed the Convention must specify how foreign legal documents can be certified for its use. Two countries may have a special convention on the recognition of each other's public documents, but in practice this is infrequent. Otherwise, the document must be certified by the foreign ministry of the country in which the document originated, and then by the foreign ministry of the government of the state in which the document will be used; one of the certifications will often be performed at an embassy or consulate. In practice this means the document must be certified twice before it can have legal effect in the receiving country. For example, as a non-signatory, Canadian documents for use abroad must be certified by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa or by a Canadian consular official abroad and subsequently by the relevant government office or consulate of the receiving state.

Template:Gallery

States that are party to the convention

The convention has 112 parties and is in force for all members of the European Union and all but 10 members of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. The most recent state to accede to the convention is Chile (entry into force 30 August 2016).

State	Entry into Force	Apostille not recognised in	Comment
Template:Flagicon Albania	Template:Dts	Belgium (until 2015), Germany, Greece, Italy (until 2011) and Spain
Template:Flagicon Andorra	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Antigua and Barbuda	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Argentina	Template:Dts	Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Armenia	Template:Dts	Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Australia	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Austria	Template:Dts	Burundi, Dominican Republic, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
Template:Flagicon Azerbaijan	Template:Dts	Germany, Hungary (until 2005), Kosovo, Netherlands (until 2010)
Template:Flagicon Bahamas	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Bahrain	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Barbados	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Belarus	Template:Dts	Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Belgium	Template:Dts	Albania (until 2015), Dominican Republic, India (until 2008), Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine (until 2004), Uzbekistan
Template:Flagicon Belize	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Bosnia and Herzegovina	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Botswana	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Brazil	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Brunei	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Bulgaria	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Burundi	Template:Dts	Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland
Template:Flagicon Cape Verde	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Chile	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Colombia	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Cook Islands	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Costa Rica	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Croatia	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Cyprus	Template:Dts	Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Czech Republic	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Kingdom of Denmark	Template:Dts		does not apply for Greenland and the Faroe Islands
Template:Flagicon Dominica	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Dominican Republic	Template:Dts	Austria, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands
Template:Flagicon Ecuador	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon El Salvador	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Estonia	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Fiji	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Finland	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon France	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Georgia	Template:Dts	Germany (until 2010), Kosovo and Greece (until 2015)
Template:Flagicon Germany	Template:Dts	Albania, Azerbaijan, Burundi, Dominican Republic, Georgia (until 2010), India, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Paraguay, Peru (until 2014), Tajikistan, Ukraine (until 2010) and Uzbekistan
Template:Flagicon Greece	Template:Dts	Albania, Georgia (until 2015), Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Peru, Uzbekistan
Template:Flagicon Grenada	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Cyprus	Template:Dts	Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Honduras	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Guatemala	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Hungary	Template:Dts	Azerbaijan (until 2005),
Template:Flagicon Iceland	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon India	Template:Dts	Belgium (until 2008), Finland (until 2009), Germany, Netherlands (until 2008) and Spain (until 2008), Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Ireland	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Israel	Template:Dts	Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Italy	Template:Dts	Albania (until 2011),
Template:Flagicon Japan	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Kazakhstan	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Kosovo	Template:Dts	Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China (for Hong Kong and Macao), Cyprus, Germany, Georgia, Greece, India, Israel, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Mexico, Moldova, Namibia, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Venezuela
Template:Flagicon Kyrgyzstan	Template:Dts	Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Greece
Template:Flagicon Latvia	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Lesotho	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Liberia	Template:Dts	Belgium, Germany, and the United States (until 2015)
Template:Flagicon Liechtenstein	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Lithuania	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Luxembourg	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Macau	Template:Dts	Kosovo	The convention is still applicable to Macau despite the transfer of sovereignty over Macau on Template:Dts.
Template:Flagicon Macedonia	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Malawi	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Malta	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Marshall Islands	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Mauritius	Template:Dts	Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Mexico	Template:Dts	Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Moldova	Template:Dts	Germany and Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Monaco	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Mongolia	Template:Dts	Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany and Greece
Template:Flagicon Montenegro	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Morocco	Template:Dts	Germany
Template:Flagicon Namibia	Template:Dts	Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Kingdom of the Netherlands	Template:Dts	Azerbaijan (until 2010), Dominican Republic, India (until 2008),	Aruba, Curaçao, Netherlands, and Sint Maarten
Template:Flagicon New Zealand	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Nicaragua	Template:Dts	Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Niue	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Norway	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Oman	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Panama	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Paraguay	Template:Dts	Germany, Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Peru	Template:Dts	Germany, Greece, Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Poland	Template:Dts	Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Portugal	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Romania	Template:Dts	Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Russia	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Saint Kitts and Nevis	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Saint Lucia	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Samoa	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon San Marino	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon São Tomé and Príncipe	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Serbia	Template:Dts	Kosovo	ratified as the Template:Flag
Template:Flagicon Seychelles	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Slovakia	Template:Dts	Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Slovenia	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon South Africa	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon South Korea	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Spain	Template:Dts	Albania, India (until 2008) and Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Suriname	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Swaziland	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Sweden	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Switzerland	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Tonga	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Trinidad and Tobago	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Turkey	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Ukraine	Template:Dts	Belgium (until 2004), Greece (until 2010) and Kosovo
Template:Flagicon United Kingdom	Template:Dts		including Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories
Template:Flagicon United States	Template:Dts	Liberia (until 2015)
Template:Flagicon Uruguay	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Uzbekistan	Template:Dts	Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Kosovo
Template:Flagicon Vanuatu	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Venezuela	Template:Dts	Kosovo

Abuse

The Apostille does not give information regarding the quality of the content in the underlying document, but certifies the signature (and the capacity of who placed it) and correctness of the seal/stamp on the document which must be certified. In 2005 The Hague Conference surveyed its members and produced a report in December 2008 which expressed serious concerns about Diplomas and Degree certificates issued by diploma mills. The possible abuse of the system was highlighted "Particularly troubling is the possible use of diploma mill qualifications to circumvent migration controls, possibly by potential terrorists." (page 5) The risk comes from the fact that the various government stamps give the document an air of authenticity without anyone having checked the underlying document. "An official looking certificate may be issued to a copy of a diploma mill qualification, and then subsequently issued with an Apostille, without anyone having ever verified the signature on, let alone the contents of, the diploma." (page 7) Further member states indicated "they would be obliged to issue an Apostille for certification of a certified copy of a diploma issued by a diploma mill". (page 15) The evaluation commission of the Hague Conference expressed concern as to whether this issue could affect the entire convention. "...the Apostille does not 'look through the certification' and does not relate to the diploma itself .... There is a clear risk that such practices may eventually undermine the effectiveness and therefore the successful operation of the Apostille Convention". (page 5)

In February 2009 the Hague Conference recommended to amend the wording on the Apostille to make it clear that only the seal and the signature were authenticated. The wording to be added is: "This Apostille only certifies the signature, the capacity of the signer and the seal or stamp it bears. It does not certify the content of the document for which it was issued."

See also

• Legalization (international law)
• Hague Conference on Private International Law
• Convention on the issue of multilingual extracts from civil status records

External links

• treaty text (HCCH)
• status (HCCH)

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