In brief
Effective 11 January 2024, the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (the "Apostille Convention") comes into force in Canada.
As a result, Canadian public documents to be used outside of Canada no longer need to be authenticated and legalized by the local consulate or embassy of the foreign country, so long as such country is also a signatory to the Apostille Convention. Instead, Canadian public documents are eligible to receive an authenticity certificate called an 'apostille'. This certificate allows such documents to be used in any of the other more than 120 member countries of the Apostille Convention1.
"Public documents" include: documents issued by governmental authorities, courts or tribunals; certain administrative documents; documents notarized by a public notary (i.e., notarial acts); and official certificates placed on documents signed by persons in their private capacity2.
Depending on where a document was issued or has been notarized, an apostille can be obtained from one of the following authorities:
- Global Affairs Canada
- The Ministry of the Attorney General of British Columbia
- The Ministry of Justice of Alberta
- The Ministry of Justice and Attorney General of Saskatchewan
- Ministère de la Justice du Québec.
- The Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery of Ontario.
This list of authorities able to issue an apostille is expected to expand and further guidance on the apostille process in Canada is anticipated to be published this year.
For documents to be used outside of Canada in a country that is not also a signatory to the Apostille Convention, the existing process of notarization, authentication and legalization by the local consulate or embassy of the foreign country must still be followed.
For more information or assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.
We want to thank Mario Lofranco, who is an Articling Student at BakerMckenzie, for his contributions to this article.
1 A list of countries accepting apostilles can be found here.
2 Article 1 of the Apostille Convention