Apostilles and Authentications

Apostilles and Authentications

Officers at the Australian Consulate-General are able to affix an Apostille or Authentication on most documents that qualify as Australian public documents. .

Apostille

An Apostille is a statement placed on a public document pursuant to the 1969 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation of Foreign Public Documents.  An apostille verifies the country of origin of the document, the identity of the signature/seals/stamps which appear on the document and the capacity in which the person signing the document has acted.

Authentication or an apostille?

You should check with the local authorities requesting the document as to their requirements in order to ensure that the appropriate service is provided for your documents to be accepted. Consulate staff cannot advise clients of foreign requirements. General information is available from the Smartraveller website http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/services/legalising-documents-overseas.html

Special rules apply to the authentication of educational documents:
As a fraud reduction strategy, all education documents must be certified by the central Student Administration office of the issuing institution as a 'true and accurate record' before the document can be authenticated by an Australian diplomatic/consular mission. In the event that the relevant institution does not provide this service, the document must be notarised by an Australian Notary Public.
Only after this certification has been received, may the Australian Diplomatic/Consular mission authenticate a tertiary education document. You should ensure that the Student Administration Officer or Australian Notary Public has their signature recorded on the DFAT signatures database, before an Australian Diplomatic/Consular mission can authenticate the document.
More information can be found on the smartraveller website.

This service normally takes 48h. The document(s) can either be collected or be sent out by mail.

This service can be provided in-person, by appointment or by mail.