What the convention is
The Hague Apostille Convention, formally the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, is an international treaty that lets member countries accept each other's public documents with a single certificate, called an apostille, instead of a longer chain of embassy and consular legalizations. In the United States, the U.S. Department of State, Office of Authentications issues apostilles for federal documents headed to member countries. Read more on our what is an apostille page.
Membership decides apostille or authentication
The destination country, meaning the country where your document will actually be used, is what decides whether it needs an apostille or an authentication. If that country belongs to the Hague Apostille Convention, the Department of State issues an apostille, and your document is ready to use as soon as you receive it back.
If the destination country has not joined the convention, the Department of State issues an authentication certificate instead. An authentication confirms the same thing an apostille does, that the seal or signature on your document is genuine, but it is only the first step. From there, the destination country's embassy or consulate in the United States adds its own legalization stamp, a step described on our embassy legalization page and completed by you after we return your document. For a fuller side by side comparison, see apostille vs authentication.
Member countries
The countries below are current members of the Hague Apostille Convention, based on our working reference list. A federal document headed to any of these destinations qualifies for an apostille rather than an authentication.
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macau
- Malta
- Mexico
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- North Macedonia
- Norway
- Oman
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Serbia
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Venezuela
Recent additions
Membership in the convention changes over time as countries join. Two notable recent additions are China, which joined in 2023, and Canada, which joined in 2024. Documents headed to either country now qualify for an apostille rather than the authentication and embassy legalization process that applied before those countries joined.
Always verify current membership
Convention membership can change, and this page reflects our working reference list at the time it was written. Before you rely on a country's status for an important deadline, verify current membership at the official source, the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) website, or contact us and we will confirm before you place an order. If your document is going to a country that is not a Hague member, review our embassy legalization page for what happens next, and see document requirements for the important rule about not adding an unnecessary notarization before a federal authentication.