Questions we get every week

An apostille is a certificate attached to a public document confirming that the signature, seal or stamp on it is genuine. Countries that are party to the Hague Apostille Convention accept it directly, with no embassy step.

Only if your destination country is not a party to the Convention. For those countries the old route still applies: the document is authenticated and then legalized at the embassy or consulate. Use the destination checker to see which applies to you.

Usually yes. Most authorities apostille an original or a certified copy, not a scan. Send us digital copies first so we can confirm the route, then we tell you exactly which originals to bring or ship.

An apostille-only file for a Hague destination is typically a matter of days once the document is in order. Files that need translation, notarization and consular legalization take longer, and the embassy's own processing time is outside anyone's control. We give you a dated estimate with your quote and a rush option when your deadline is fixed.

It depends on the number of documents, whether translation and notarization are needed, and the consular fees of the destination country. Those fees are set by the embassy, not by us. Send your documents through the request form and you get an itemised quote at no charge.

No. We are a private company that prepares and carries files through the authorities on your behalf. You can complete these steps yourself directly with the competent authority; people use us to avoid rejected filings and repeat trips.

Yes. Documents reach us by courier from anywhere in Canada and abroad, and we ship the finished file back to the address you choose.

They are two routes to the same end. Before Canada joined the Hague Apostille Convention, every document going abroad was authenticated by Global Affairs Canada and then legalized at the destination country’s embassy: two steps, two queues, two sets of fees. For a country inside the Convention, the apostille replaces both with a single certificate. For a country outside it, the old two-step route still applies, except the first step is now called an apostille. So the question is never "apostille or legalization" in the abstract; it is decided entirely by where the document is going.

An apostille certifies a signature, seal or stamp that a public official put on a document. So anything issued by a government body, a court, or a notary can carry one directly. A private document (a contract, a letter, a company resolution) cannot, until a notary certifies a signature on it; that notarization is what the apostille then attaches to. What cannot be apostilled at all is a document with no official signature to certify: an unsigned printout, a screenshot, a photocopy nobody has attested.

Not on its own. A plain photocopy carries no official signature, so there is nothing for the apostille to certify. What works is a certified true copy: a notary compares the copy against the original, attests that it matches, and signs. The apostille then certifies the notary’s signature. This is the usual route when you cannot part with the original, such as a passport or a diploma you only have one of. But check first, because some receiving authorities insist on the original itself and will not accept a certified copy however well prepared.

It depends on the destination, not on the document. A Quebec birth certificate going to France or Morocco is already in an accepted language and needs no translation. The same certificate going to Germany or Korea does. And being in the right language is not the same as being authenticated. A French document still needs the apostille, and if the destination is outside the Convention it still needs the consular stage. The two questions are separate and both have to be answered.

No, and no one in Canada can. An apostille is issued by the country whose official signed the document. A degree from India is apostilled in India; a birth certificate from Lebanon is legalized through Lebanese channels. Canadian authorities can only certify Canadian signatures. What we can do with a foreign document is arrange a certified translation of it here, and notarize a Canadian declaration that refers to it, but the foreign original itself has to be authenticated in its own country.

Only if a notary has to witness you signing something, such as a power of attorney or an affidavit, which by definition needs you present. Everything else can be done at a distance: send digital copies through the request form, courier the originals when we confirm the route, and we ship the finished file wherever you ask. Most of our clients outside Montreal never set foot in the office.

We tell you why and what the options are, in writing. Refusals almost always come down to one of three things: the underlying document is the wrong form, such as a short-form certificate where a long-form was needed, a copy where an original was required; it is older than the receiving body accepts; or a translation was done by someone that body does not recognise. All three are fixable, and the fix is usually a fresh document rather than an appeal. Fees already paid to a third party (a government authority, an embassy) are generally not recoverable, which is the honest reason we confirm the route in writing before starting.

The apostille itself does not expire. What expires is the patience of the body receiving it: many require the underlying document to have been issued within the last three, six or twelve months, and an apostille on a ten-year-old certificate does not make that certificate current. So the answer that matters is not how old the apostille is but how old the document underneath it is, measured against whatever limit the destination sets. Ask them for that number before you start, because if a fresh original is needed it is usually the slowest step in the whole chain.