What an Apostille Is, in Plain English
An apostille is an official certificate that the UK government attaches to your document. It says one thing: the signature, stamp or seal on this document is genuine, and the person who signed it had the authority to do so. That is the whole idea. Once the certificate is attached, an official in another country can accept your British document without having to work out for themselves whether it is real.
The reason it exists is simple. Imagine a town hall clerk in Valencia holding a birth certificate issued in Leeds. She has never seen a Leeds register office stamp in her life. She has no way of checking whether the superintendent registrar who signed it exists, or whether the document was printed on a home printer that morning. Multiply that problem by every document, every country and every office in the world, and you can see why an internationally agreed answer was needed. The apostille is that answer: a single, standardised certificate that every participating country has agreed in advance to trust.
In the United Kingdom, apostilles are issued by the Legalisation Office of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office — the FCDO. It is the only body in the UK that can issue one. There is no separate Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish apostille authority; documents from all four nations go to the same office. When you see a company advertising an apostille service, including ours, what they are doing is preparing and submitting your document to that same government office on your behalf.
💬 How to pronounce it, and where the word comes from
Most people in the UK say a-POSS-teel or a-poss-TEE-yay; both are widely used and nobody will correct you. The word is French, from apostiller, meaning to add a note in the margin — which is a rather good description of what the certificate does. You will also see it written as “apostile”, “apostilla” or “apostilled certificate”. They all refer to the same thing.
The one sentence worth remembering
If you take nothing else from this guide, take this: an apostille authenticates the origin of a document, not its contents. It confirms that the paper is what it claims to be and came from who it claims to have come from. It says nothing about whether the facts written on it are correct, whether a qualification is any good, whether a marriage is still subsisting, or whether a contract is legally binding. We come back to this in section 7, because misunderstanding it is the single most common cause of confusion we encounter.
Why you have probably landed here
Almost everybody who reads this page arrived for one of the same handful of reasons. A foreign employer asked for an apostilled degree certificate as a condition of a job offer. A university abroad would not process an application without apostilled transcripts. A registry office in Italy, Spain or Portugal said it could not register a marriage without an apostilled certificate. An immigration department asked for an apostilled police check. Or a bank, notary or company registry overseas refused to accept a British corporate document without one.
In every one of those cases the request is routine, the process is well established, and the sticking point is almost never the apostille itself — it is working out which document to apostille and whether anything else is needed alongside it. That is what the rest of this guide is for.
✅ The short version if you are in a hurry
If someone outside the UK has asked for an apostille on a British document, you almost certainly do need one, and the process is straightforward. Our fixed price is £90 per document where no solicitor is involved, or £120 where the document has to be certified by a UK solicitor first. Both are apostilled the next working day once we have the document. Use the What Do I Need? checker to confirm the requirements for your destination in about a minute.
The Hague Convention, Explained Simply
The apostille exists because of a treaty signed in The Hague on 5 October 1961. Its formal name is the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, which is a mouthful, but the title tells you exactly what it was for. Before 1961, getting a document recognised abroad meant a chain of stamps: your own government, then the foreign ministry, then that country's embassy, and sometimes its consulate too. Each link added weeks and fees. The 1961 Convention replaced that chain with a single certificate.
The bargain is straightforward. Every country that joins agrees to two things. First, it will designate an authority to issue apostilles on its own documents — in the UK that is the FCDO. Second, it will accept an apostille issued by any other member country without asking for anything further. That reciprocity is the entire value of the system.
📊 The Convention by numbers, as of mid‑2026
130
contracting parties to the Convention
1961
year the treaty was signed
1
certificate instead of an embassy chain
Source: the official status table maintained by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH). The figure has risen steadily — the Convention entered into force for Algeria on 9 July 2026, and enters into force for Viet Nam on 11 September 2026.
What “member” actually means for you
Membership matters in one direction that people often get backwards. What counts is whether the destination country — the one that will receive your document — is a member. The UK has been a member since 1965, so the UK side is always covered. If your destination is also a member, an FCDO apostille is the complete answer and no embassy is involved. If your destination is not a member, the apostille is still required, but it is only the first step; that country's embassy in London then has to attest the document as well.
So the practical question is never “is the UK in the Hague Convention?” It always is. The question is “is the country asking for my document in the Hague Convention?”
The Convention has grown a lot recently
This is worth knowing because a great deal of advice online — including advice published by document services that should know better — is out of date. Several major destinations joined in the last few years, and if you read a guide written before 2024 you will be told they require embassy attestation when they no longer do.
| Country | In force since | What changed for UK documents |
|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | 7 December 2022 | Apostille only. Saudi Embassy legalisation is no longer part of the standard route, though individual employers may still ask for extras. |
| China | 7 November 2023 | Apostille only. The old Chinese consular legalisation chain was withdrawn for UK public documents. |
| Canada | 11 January 2024 | Apostille only, replacing the previous authentication-and-consular route. |
| Algeria | 9 July 2026 | Apostille only. One of the newest members. |
| Viet Nam | 11 September 2026 | Consular legalisation until that date, apostille only from then on. If your deadline straddles it, check with the receiving authority. |
⚠️ A myth worth killing: Saudi Arabia, India and China
You will still find pages online claiming that Saudi Arabia, India or China are outside the Hague Convention and need embassy attestation. That is wrong. India has been a member since 2005, Saudi Arabia since December 2022 and China since November 2023. UK documents for all three need an apostille and nothing more. Following outdated advice here means paying for embassy fees you do not owe and adding weeks to a process that should take days.
What happens if your destination is not a member
Nothing breaks — the process simply gets longer. Your document still needs the FCDO apostille first, because the embassy will not attest a document the UK government has not authenticated. After that, the document goes to that country's embassy or consulate in London, which adds its own stamp and charges its own fee. Some countries add a third step once the document arrives, typically at their ministry of foreign affairs. We handle the whole chain, and embassy attestation starts at £150. See section 10 for which destinations this applies to.
Do You Actually Need an Apostille?
Here is the decision in one line: you need an apostille if an organisation outside the UK has asked you for a British document and told you it must be apostilled, legalised, authenticated or attested. Those four words are used more or less interchangeably by foreign officials, and all of them point to the same starting step.
Equally, here is when you do not need one. You never need an apostille to use a UK document inside the UK — British institutions can verify British documents themselves. You cannot get a UK apostille on a document issued in another country; that has to be done by the authority in the country that issued it. And you do not need one simply because you are going abroad; it is the receiving organisation's requirement that creates the need, not the travel.
The six situations that account for almost every request
Taking a job abroad
The most common reason by a distance. Foreign employers and labour ministries typically want an apostilled degree certificate, a police certificate (ACRO or DBS) and sometimes professional registration documents. Teaching, healthcare, engineering and oil and gas roles are the strictest. Our degree apostille guide and ACRO police certificate guide cover these two in detail.
Getting married abroad, or registering a UK marriage overseas
Register offices in Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and Greece routinely require an apostilled birth certificate, a certificate of no impediment, and if you are already married, an apostilled marriage certificate. Almost all of them also want a sworn translation. See our marriage certificate guide and birth certificate guide.
Residency, visas and citizenship applications
Moving to Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany or the Gulf usually means an apostilled birth certificate, marriage certificate and police check as part of the residency file. Immigration departments are also the authorities most likely to impose a freshness rule — often three or six months — so do not apostille too far in advance.
Studying at a foreign university
Admissions offices and credential evaluators want apostilled degree certificates and transcripts. Some accept a document issued directly by the university; others insist the university's own signature be verified, which occasionally means a solicitor step first. Ask the admissions office whether they need the original certificate apostilled or a certified copy.
Buying, selling or inheriting property overseas
Foreign notaries handling a property transaction commonly need an apostilled power of attorney so somebody can sign on your behalf, plus apostilled proof of identity or marital status. Inheritance cases add grants of probate and death certificates. Powers of attorney always need a UK solicitor or notary first, so these are £120 jobs.
Business, banking and company registration abroad
Opening a foreign subsidiary, a corporate bank account or a branch office means apostilled Companies House documents — certificate of incorporation, memorandum and articles, good standing certificates — plus board resolutions and sometimes HMRC tax residency letters. Companies House certificates go straight through with no solicitor step.
💡 The single most useful thing you can do: ask this exact question
Before you order anything, email or call whoever asked you for the document and put this to them word for word:
Four questions, one email. Getting those answers up front prevents the overwhelming majority of rejected documents we see, and costs you nothing. If the answer comes back vague, ask them to put it in writing — it is their requirement, so they should be able to state it.
If you cannot get a clear answer, or the reply is in a language you do not read, call us on 0203 916 6250 or message us on WhatsApp. We have handled documents for 127+ destinations and can usually tell you what a given authority will want from the wording of the request alone.
Apostille vs Attestation vs Legalisation vs Notarisation
Four words, endlessly confused, and the confusion costs people real money. Here is each one defined, followed by a table you can screenshot.
| Term | Who does it | In one line |
|---|---|---|
| Notarisation | A UK notary public or solicitor | A qualified professional certifies a signature, an identity, or that a copy is a true copy of the original. Often the first step, never the last. |
| Apostille | The FCDO Legalisation Office | A government certificate confirming the signature or seal on the document is genuine. Accepted on its own by all 130 Hague member countries. |
| Legalisation | The FCDO, and sometimes an embassy | The umbrella term for the whole authentication process. For a Hague country, legalisation is the apostille. For a non-Hague country it means apostille plus embassy. |
| Attestation | A foreign embassy or consulate in London | The extra stamp required by countries outside the Hague Convention, added after the FCDO apostille. Sometimes followed by a further step in the destination country. |
Why people mix them up
Partly because the UK government uses two of them for the same thing. GOV.UK calls the department the Legalisation Office and describes its job as attaching an apostille. So “get my document legalised” and “get my document apostilled” are, for a Hague destination, identical requests.
The other source of confusion is the word attestation, which foreign officials use very loosely. A Gulf employer asking for “attested documents” almost always means the full chain: apostille first, then their embassy. But a European employer using the same word usually just means an apostille. When in doubt, ask the question from section 3.
💬 A worked example of the sequence
You need an apostilled power of attorney for a property sale in Dubai. Step one: a UK notary witnesses your signature and applies their seal — that is notarisation. Step two: the FCDO confirms the notary's seal is genuine — that is the apostille. Step three: because the UAE is not a Hague member, the UAE Embassy in London adds its own stamp — that is attestation. Step four: the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs stamps it on arrival. All four steps together are what people mean by legalisation. Miss step two and step three cannot happen; do step three before step two and it is worthless.
One more distinction worth having: a certified translation is not any of the above. A translator certifying their own work is making a statement, not authenticating a document. If a foreign authority wants the translation itself apostilled, the translator's signature must be certified by a UK solicitor first, and the apostille then verifies the solicitor. Our apostille and translation guide explains the correct order of operations, which trips up a lot of people.
Which UK Documents Can Be Apostilled — and Which Cannot
The FCDO can only apostille a document if it can match the signature, stamp or seal against its own records. That single rule explains everything about what goes through easily, what needs an extra step, and what is refused outright.
Group one: public documents that go straight through
These carry the signature or seal of a UK official whose specimen the FCDO already holds. No solicitor is involved, and these are our £90 jobs.
✅ Civil and personal records
- • Birth, death, marriage, civil partnership and adoption certificates issued by the GRO, NRS or GRONI
- • Decree absolute and final orders from a UK court
- • Grants of probate and letters of administration
- • ACRO police certificates and DBS certificates
- • Deed poll documents enrolled at the Royal Courts of Justice
✅ Official, academic and corporate
- • Companies House certificates of incorporation and good standing
- • HMRC letters, including tax residency certificates
- • Court documents sealed with a wet-ink court seal
- • Degree certificates and transcripts from recognised UK universities
- • Medical certificates signed by a registered doctor
Group two: private documents that need a solicitor first
These are perfectly legitimate documents, but nobody at the FCDO has a specimen of your signature or your accountant's. The fix is to have a UK solicitor or notary certify the document; the FCDO then apostilles the solicitor's signature, because that it does hold on file. These are our £120 jobs.
📝 Typically needs solicitor certification
Group three: documents that cannot be apostilled at all
❌ The FCDO will refuse these
- • Documents issued outside the UK. A French birth certificate must be apostilled in France, not here. This is the most common refusal.
- • Laminated documents. The apostille has to be physically attached and the paper inspected. Lamination makes both impossible and cannot be undone — you will need a replacement certificate.
- • Commemorative or decorative certificates. The pretty wedding certificate from the venue, or a keepsake naming certificate, has no legal status. You need the certified copy of the register entry.
- • Photocopies that have not been certified by a UK solicitor or notary.
- • Documents that have been altered, damaged or defaced, or where the seal has been detached.
- • UK passports and driving licences in their original form. A solicitor-certified copy can be apostilled, but the original document itself cannot.
💰 A tip that saves money more often than any other
If all you have is a photocopy of a birth or marriage certificate, do not pay for solicitor certification. Order a fresh certified copy from the General Register Office for £12.50 and use the £90 service instead. That comes to £102.50 rather than £120, and — more importantly — you end up with an apostille sitting directly on the registrar's signature, which is what Spanish, Italian and Portuguese civil registries insist on. A solicitor-certified copy is frequently rejected by those offices.
How the Process Works, in Five Steps
The mechanics are simpler than most people expect. Here is the whole thing end to end. If you want the detail of what happens inside the Legalisation Office — how signatures are verified, what causes delays, how the online application system works — our FCDO apostille process guide is the deep dive.
Confirm what the receiving authority actually wants
Original or certified copy? Apostille only or embassy too? Translation before or after? Any age limit? Use the four-part question in section 3. Everything downstream depends on getting this right, and it is free.
Get the right version of the document
An official original wherever possible. If yours is missing, damaged, laminated or too old for the receiving authority, order a replacement before doing anything else — GRO certificates are £12.50 and take about four working days.
Solicitor certification, if the document needs it
Only for private documents — see section 5. We arrange this in-house as part of the £120 service, so you do not need to find a solicitor yourself or pay a separate fee.
Submission to the FCDO Legalisation Office
The office checks the signature or seal against its records and, if it matches, attaches the apostille. Applying yourself by post takes up to 25 working days plus postage. As a registered business we submit in person and receive documents back the next working day.
Embassy attestation and translation, where required
Non-Hague destinations need the embassy stage after the apostille, from £150. If a translation is needed, it is done after the apostille so that the apostille text is translated too. Then the finished document is couriered to you or collected free from our Westminster office.
⚠️ The order matters more than anything else
Solicitor first, then apostille, then embassy, then translation. Every step verifies the one before it, so doing them out of sequence means paying twice. The classic and expensive error is translating a document before it is apostilled: the translation then does not cover the apostille, and the receiving authority sees a foreign-language document with an untranslated English attachment stapled to it. Many will reject that outright.
What an Apostille Looks Like — and What It Does Not Prove
A UK apostille is an A4 certificate printed on secure paper with the FCDO seal, a unique reference number and the signature of a legalisation officer. It is physically attached to your document — usually stapled and sealed with an eyelet — and the two must never be separated. Your original document is not defaced, stamped over or retained; it comes back to you with the apostille attached.
The format is not a British invention. It is fixed by the 1961 Convention, which is why an official in Tokyo or Bogotá recognises it instantly even though the text is in English. Every apostille in the world carries the same ten numbered fields in the same order.
| Field | What it says | On a UK apostille |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Country | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
| 2 | This public document has been signed by | The name of the registrar, notary, solicitor or official who signed |
| 3 | Acting in the capacity of | Their role, e.g. Superintendent Registrar or Notary Public |
| 4 | Bears the seal or stamp of | The issuing body, e.g. the General Register Office |
| 5 | At | Milton Keynes, where the Legalisation Office operates |
| 6 | The (date) | The date the apostille was issued |
| 7 | By | Her Majesty's / His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs |
| 8 | Number | The unique reference, checkable on the FCDO verification register |
| 9 | Seal or stamp | The embossed FCDO seal |
| 10 | Signature | The legalisation officer's signature |
Field 8 is the one that does the real work. The reference number lets any receiving authority look the apostille up on the FCDO's online verification register and confirm it was genuinely issued. That is why foreign officials trust the certificate rather than simply taking your word for it.
What an apostille does not prove — the big misconception
❌ An apostille says nothing about the contents of your document
Look again at the ten fields. Every single one is about the signature and the seal. Not one of them refers to what the document actually says. That is deliberate, and it means an apostille does not:
- • Confirm the facts on the document are true or up to date
- • Make the document legally valid in the destination country
- • Guarantee any authority will accept it — they set their own rules
- • Confirm a qualification is recognised or a degree accredited
- • Confirm you are still married, still employed, or still resident
- • Translate the document or remove the need for a translation
- • Certify a photocopy — only a solicitor or notary does that
The consequences of this are practical, not theoretical. An apostilled degree certificate proves the university issued it; it does not oblige a foreign ministry of education to recognise the qualification, which is a separate process. An apostilled marriage certificate proves the registrar signed it; it does not prove you are still married, which is why some countries additionally want a recent certificate of no impediment. And an apostilled document can still be refused for reasons that have nothing to do with the apostille — wrong document type, missing translation, or simply too old.
✅ Paper or digital?
The FCDO issues two kinds. The paper apostille is the physical certificate described above, and it is what most people need. The e-Apostille is a digitally signed PDF, cheaper and faster, but only available for documents that were themselves electronically signed by a UK notary or solicitor. Crucially, it is not available for GRO certificates, ACRO or DBS certificates — more on that in section 8. Our e-Apostille vs paper apostille guide compares them properly.
Costs and Timelines in 2026
There are two sets of numbers here and it is worth keeping them apart: what the government charges, and what a service costs. Our prices already include the government fee, so you are not comparing like with like if you look only at the FCDO figure.
🏛️ What the FCDO charges directly
| FCDO service | Fee per document | How long it takes | Who can use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard, paper-based | £45 | Usually up to 25 working days, plus courier or postage time | Anyone |
| e-Apostille | £35 | Up to 2 working days | Anyone, but only for eligible digitally signed documents |
| Next-Day, paper-based | £40 | Next working day | Registered businesses only |
| Restricted Urgent | £100 | Same day, pre-approval required | Registered businesses only |
Figures from GOV.UK, checked 3 August 2026. Standard-service applicants also pay return courier costs: £6 per 1.5 kg within the UK, £32 to most of Europe and £42 to the rest of the world, or you can enclose a stamped A4 envelope for a UK address.
⚠️ Two things people get caught by
The postal route is slower than it used to be. Plenty of guides still quote 15 working days. GOV.UK now states up to 25 working days plus delivery for the standard service — that is five working weeks before your document is even posted back. If you have a visa or job deadline, plan accordingly.
The e-Apostille excludes the most commonly needed documents. You cannot use it for birth, death, marriage, civil partnership or adoption certificates or anything else from the General Register Office; ACRO police certificates for England and Wales; DBS certificates for England and Wales; disclosure certificates for Scotland and Northern Ireland; fingerprint certificates; or ACCA membership certificates. Paying £35 for an e-Apostille on a birth certificate is one of the most common wasted transactions we see.
💰 What LegaliseNow charges
Our pricing is fixed and inclusive. The FCDO fee is already inside the figures below, along with checking, submission and handling. There is no separate admin charge and no surprise at the end.
Apostille
No solicitor required
£90
Birth, marriage and death certificates, ACRO and DBS, Companies House, degree certificates, court documents
Next working day
Apostille + Solicitor
Certification included
£120
Powers of attorney, contracts, photocopies, passport copies, translations, declarations, board resolutions
Next working day
Embassy Attestation
Non-Hague destinations
From £150
UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Thailand, Egypt and other countries outside the Convention
Embassy dependent
Not sure which price applies to you?
The checker tells you in about a minute — pick your destination and document type and it returns the exact price and steps.
📦 Delivery
In-person collection
Free
7th Floor, 50 Broadway, London SW1H 0DB
DHL UK next day
£11.63
Tracked next-day delivery anywhere in the UK
DHL Europe
£40
Tracked express across Europe, 2–4 days
DHL Worldwide
£50
Tracked express worldwide, 3–7 days
📅 A realistic timeline
James has been offered a teaching post in Portugal and has been asked for an apostilled degree certificate and an apostilled ACRO police certificate. Here is how the fortnight actually goes.
Day 1 — James emails the Portuguese school the four-part question. They confirm apostille only, originals, and a certified Portuguese translation done after the apostille.
Day 1 — he applies for his ACRO certificate online. His degree certificate he already has. He places the LegaliseNow order the same evening.
Day 9 — the ACRO certificate arrives. He posts both documents to us by tracked mail.
Day 11 — we receive them, check both signatures against FCDO requirements, and confirm no solicitor step is needed. Cost: £180 for the two documents.
Day 12 — both apostilled and returned by DHL UK next day (£11.63, paid once for the pair), arriving Day 13.
Total: £191.63 and under two weeks, most of which was waiting for ACRO. Applying to the FCDO himself by post would have saved roughly £90 and cost him five extra weeks.
Sending several documents together is worth doing: the apostille fee is per document, but you pay the delivery charge once. Our full apostille cost guide breaks down every fee in the chain, including embassy charges by country.
Does an Apostille Expire? And Other Things People Get Wrong
This section exists because these eight points come up in almost every phone call we take, and getting them wrong is what turns a two-week job into a two-month one.
1. An apostille has no expiry date — but the receiving authority may have a deadline
Nothing in the Convention makes an apostille lapse, and the FCDO prints no expiry on it. Technically it is valid forever. In practice, many authorities apply their own freshness rule and will not accept a document apostilled more than three or six months ago. Gulf states, Italian and Spanish civil registries and several immigration departments are the usual culprits. The restriction comes from them, not from the certificate — so ask them, and do not apostille months before you need it.
2. One apostille covers one document
Each document needs its own apostille and its own fee. If you need a birth certificate and a degree certificate apostilled, that is two apostilles. The FCDO can occasionally issue a single apostille over a bound set of documents, but only where they genuinely form one instrument and the receiving authority has agreed — ask before assuming.
3. Never laminate anything, and never remove the staple
A laminated document cannot be apostilled at all, and lamination cannot be reversed — you will have to buy a replacement. Once the apostille is attached, detaching it destroys the link between the two and the receiving authority is entitled to reject the document. Do not unpick the eyelet, do not re-staple, and do not laminate the finished pair “to protect it”.
4. The UK cannot apostille a foreign document
If you were born in Poland, married in Nigeria or graduated in the Philippines, those documents must be apostilled by the competent authority in the country that issued them. Living in the UK makes no difference. This is the most frequent reason a submission is refused outright.
5. An apostille is not a translation, and it does not remove the need for one
The apostille is issued in English (with standard French headings). If the destination does not work in English, you will still need a certified or sworn translation — and the translation must be done after the apostille so that the apostille text is included. Requirements vary a great deal by country; our translation guide sets them out.
6. Your original document is not taken away from you
A common worry, and an unfounded one. The FCDO attaches the apostille to your document and returns both. Nothing is stamped across the face of your certificate and nothing is retained. The one caveat is at the far end: foreign authorities frequently keep the apostilled document on file permanently, so if you have more than one application to make, order and apostille two copies.
7. An apostille does not guarantee acceptance
It guarantees that no further authentication can be demanded by a Hague member. It does not oblige anyone to accept the document for their own purposes. An authority can still refuse it because it is the wrong document type, lacks a translation, is older than their rules allow, or does not contain the information they need. That is why section 3's question matters so much.
8. “Certified copy” means two different things
A GRO certified copy of a birth or marriage entry is a full legal original, issued by the government — it is not a photocopy in any lesser sense, and it is apostilled at £90. A solicitor-certified copy is a photocopy that a solicitor has signed as a true copy, and it is apostilled at £120. They are not interchangeable, and several European registries accept the first while refusing the second.
Country Quick Reference: Apostille Only vs Embassy Attestation
Everything comes down to one question: is your destination a party to the Hague Convention? With 130 contracting parties, the answer is usually yes — which means an FCDO apostille is the complete job. Below is a quick orientation rather than an exhaustive list; for the full country-by-country table, use the What Do I Need? checker or the country requirements section of our Complete UK Apostille Guide.
✅ Apostille only — from £90
A single FCDO apostille and you are finished. No embassy, no consulate, no further stamps.
🏛 Apostille + embassy — from £150
Not Hague members. The FCDO apostille comes first, then that country's embassy in London, and sometimes a further step on arrival.
💬 Two things to watch on this list
Membership changes. Countries join, and when they do the embassy step disappears overnight. Saudi Arabia, China, Canada and Algeria have all moved into the left-hand column since 2022. Viet Nam moves across on 11 September 2026 — before that date its consular legalisation route still applies, after it an apostille alone is enough. If your paperwork straddles that date, confirm with the receiving authority which route they want.
Hague membership is not a guarantee of simplicity. Some member states still ask for a sworn translation, a recently issued document, or a specific version of a certificate. The apostille removes the embassy step; it does not remove local rules.
If your destination is not on either list — and most of the world's 130 members are not, because the left column above is a sample — the checker will tell you which column it belongs in, along with the price and the exact steps for your document type.