The Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, also known as the Apostille Convention, is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH). The Apostille Convention is intended to simplify the procedure through which a document, issued in one of the contracting states, can be certified for legal purposes in the other contracting states of the convention. A certification under the convention is called an apostille or Hague apostille (from French apostille, meaning a marginal or bottom note, derived from Latin post illa, meaning "after those [words of the text]"). An apostille is an international certification comparable to a notarisation, and may supplement a local notarisation of the document. If the convention applies between two states, an apostille issued by the state of origin is sufficient to certify the document, and removes the need for further certification by the destination state.
Background
Many states require the verification of the authenticity of foreign documents, in a procedure called legalisation, for the document to be legally valid there. This legalisation is generally a chain of certifications, by one or more authorities of the state where the document was issued and of the destination state. The first authority certifies the issuer of the document, and each subsequent authority certifies the previous one, until the final certification is made by an authority of the destination state that can be recognised by the final user there.Apostille Handbook, Hague Conference on Private International Law, 2023. For example, to be accepted in Egypt, a document from the U.S. state of Maryland not issued by a government official must be certified by a notary public, who must then be certified by the clerk of the circuit court in the notary's county, who must then be certified by the Maryland Secretary of State, who must then be certified by the U.S. Department of State, which must finally be certified by the Embassy of Egypt in the United States.Authentication of Personal Documents, Embassy of Egypt in Washington, DC.
In many cases, the legalisation procedure is simplified or exempted altogether. For example, some states have agreements eliminating the legalisation requirement for certain documents issued by each other, such as between Argentina and Italy,Agreement between the Argentine Republic and the Italian Republic on the exchange of civil status records and the exemption of legalisation of documents, Government of Argentina . between Brazil and France,Agreement of cooperation in civil matters between the government of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the government of the French Republic, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil . between parties of the Convention on the Issue of Multilingual Extracts from Civil Status Records, and between parties of the Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations of the Commonwealth of Independent States.The Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters, Hague Conference on Private International Law, April 2005.Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters of 22 January 1993, Unified Register of Legal Acts and Other Documents of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Article 13 .Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters of 7 October 2022, Unified Register of Legal Acts and Other Documents of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Article 12 . The European Union also has a regulation eliminating the legalisation requirement for certain documents of its member states to be accepted by each other.Administrative cooperation: circulation of public documents, European Commission. Some states such as Canada, Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States generally accept documents from any state without any certification.Canada, Apostille Questionnaire 2021, Hague Conference on Private International Law.Japan, Apostille Questionnaire 2021, Hague Conference on Private International Law.Republic of South Africa, Apostille Questionnaire 2021, Hague Conference on Private International Law.United Kingdom, Apostille Questionnaire 2021, Hague Conference on Private International Law.United States of America, Apostille Questionnaire 2021, Hague Conference on Private International Law.
The Apostille Convention, drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), is intended to simplify the legalisation procedure by replacing it with a certification called an apostille, issued by an authority designated by the state of origin. Ideally the apostille would be the only certification needed, but in some cases additional certifications in the state of origin may be required before the apostille is issued. In any case, after the apostille, no certification by the destination state is required.
Contracting states The convention permits certain states to sign and ratify the convention, becoming contracting states. For each of these states, or for an extension to one of its territories, the convention enters into force 60 days after the deposit of its ratification or territorial extension. Other states are also permitted to become contracting states by acceding to the convention, but without signing it. For each of these states, during the period of six months after it deposits its accession, the other contracting states may object to it, and the convention enters into force 60 days after this period, between the acceding state and all other contracting states that did not object to it. Later, if a contracting state withdraws its objection, the convention enters into force between these two states at that time. A successor state of a previous contracting state may declare to continue to be bound by the convention without a waiting period or accede later as a new state.
, 130 states are contracting states of the Apostille Convention.
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Potential accessions The governments of Iran, Lebanon and Malaysia have expressed interest in acceding to the Apostille Convention.Iran, apostille questionnaire 2021, Hague Conference on Private International Law.Lebanon, apostille questionnaire 2021, Hague Conference on Private International Law .Malaysia, questions for non-contracting states, Hague Conference on Private International Law, 2016.
In May 2025, the government of Indonesia recommended that Malaysia and Egypt accede to the convention.
In June 2026, the parliament of The Gambia approved a motion to consider acceding to the convention.
Procedure Eligible documents The convention mentions four types of documents eligible for apostilles: court documents administrative documents (e.g. vital records) 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. However, the Apostille Convention does not apply to documents issued by diplomatic or consular officers, or to administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations. The reason for this exclusion is that these documents are usually already exempt from legalisation.Background Note on Article 1(3) Exclusions, Hague Conference on Private International Law.
Competent authorities Each contracting state designates one or more authorities to issue apostilles. Examples of designated authorities are ministries, courts, subnational governments, notaries and registries. In some states, each authority is designated to issue apostilles only on certain types of documents. For example, in Hungary, apostilles are issued on court documents by the Ministry of Justice, on notarial documents by the Chamber of Civil Law Notaries, and on other documents by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; in Mexico, apostilles on federal documents are issued by the federal Secretariat of Governance, and on state documents by the respective state government. In South Africa, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) issues apostilles for public documents, while the High Court issues apostilles for notarised private documents.
In general, documents issued by a government official can be certified directly with an apostille, while other documents must be certified by a notary, who may then be certified with an apostille. In some cases, additional intermediate certifications may be required; for example, for notarised or municipal documents in some U.S. states, the notary or municipal official must be certified by the respective county or court, which may then be certified by the respective state with an apostille.
Cost The fee for issuing an apostille varies widely by state. In 2016, the HCCH compiled fees of 54 states and calculated an average of 15.43 EUR.Overview of apostille fees, Hague Conference on Private International Law, October 2016. Some states, such as Italy and Japan, do not charge a fee, while the Cayman Islands charge 150 KYD (180 USD), one of the highest. In some states, the fee also varies by location, authority, quantity, purpose or type of document. For example, in the United States, Indiana does not charge a fee for an apostille of a birth certificate, while Connecticut charges 40 USD for an apostille not related to adoption.