Apostille meaning explained
The Hague Apostille Convention
The Hague Apostille Convention is an international treaty that allows for signatory countries to use a simplified form of certification to provide evidence that a document is legal in other signatory countires. This means that any country signed up to the Treaty needs only an Apostille Certificate, rather than the more costly (and time-consuming) DFAT authentication and Embassy attestation process required by states not signed up to the treaty.
What is an Apostille Certificate?
An Apostille Certificate is very similar to an Australian Notarial Certificate required for domestic Australian documents. If your Australian document needs to be legalised for use in a Hague Apostille Convention member country, then you need an Apostille Certificate rather than more costly attestation services. Our online document ordering system walks you through the process so you don’t need to think about whether your country is on the list or not, but if you want to know which countries are included, here’s the list.
Aa
- Albania
- Andorra
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
Bb
- Bahamas
- Bahrain
- Barbados
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Belize
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Brazil
- Brunei Darussalam
- Bulgaria
- Burundi
Cc
- Cape Verde
- Chile
- China, People’s Republic of (Hong Kong & Macao Only)
- Colombia
- Cook Islands
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
Dd
- Denmark
- Dominica
- Dominican RepublicEcuador
Ee
- El Salvador
- Estonia
Ff
- Fiji
- Finland
- France
Gg
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Grenada
- Guatemala
- Guyana
Hh
- Honduras
- Hungary
Ii
- Iceland
- India
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
Jj
- Japan
Kk
- Kazakhstan
- Korea, Republic of
- Kosovo
- Kyrgyzstan
Ll
- Latvia
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
Mm
- Malawi
- Malta
- Marshall Islands
- Mauritius
- Mexico
- Moldova, Republic of
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Morocco
Nn
- Namibia
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Niue
- North Macedonia, Republic of
- Norway
Oo
- Oman
Pp
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
Rr
- Romania
- Russian Federation
Ss
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- San Marino
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Suriname
- Swaziland
- Sweden
- Switzerland
Tt
- Tajikistan
- Tonga
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Turkey
Uu
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
Vv
- Vanuatu
- Venezuela
