Apostille or Embassy Legalisation: What Canada Requires

Last reviewed: 26 September 2026. Country requirements change. This page is re-checked periodically, and nothing on it replaces confirming the position with the Canadian body that will receive your document.

Canada is one of the few destinations where the answer has changed recently in your favour, and one of the few where the right answer is sometimes "you may not need an apostille at all". Both points are worth understanding before you pay for anything.

Check the current position before acting on this or any other page. Convention membership is a live fact. Confirm Canada's status against the HCCH status table for the Apostille Convention on the day you start.

Why this one changed

For a long time Canada was one of the best-known countries outside the Apostille Convention. That produced a great deal of advice about multi-step authentication chains, and much of it is still online.

Canada joined the Convention, and it took effect in January 2024. For documents within the Convention's scope, an apostille issued by DFAT is now the Convention-recognised way to authenticate an Australian public document for use in Canada. If an agent or an older article describes DFAT authentication followed by a step at a Canadian mission, ask whether that advice predates the change.

First question: does the Canadian body want authentication at all?

This is the question that saves the most money, and it is specific to Canada's practice in a way it is not for, say, China.

Much Canadian administrative practice, particularly in immigration, has historically worked from copies of documents rather than authenticated originals. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) publishes its own document instructions for each application type, and those instructions — not general apostille guidance — are what govern an IRCC application.

So before you notarise anything, read the document checklist for your specific application or write to the receiving body and ask:

• Do you need the original, a certified copy, or a plain copy?
• If a certified copy, certified by whom?
• Do you require an apostille, or is notarisation enough?

Bodies that are more likely to want formal authentication include provincial vital statistics offices, courts, land titles offices, professional regulators assessing overseas qualifications, and financial institutions dealing with estates. But the only reliable answer is the receiving body's own.

If an apostille is needed

The chain for a Convention-covered document is short:

1. Notarise in Australia, if the document is a private one (a power of attorney, an affidavit, a certified copy made by a notary)
2. DFAT apostille
3. Translation, only if the document is not in English or French — see below

Australian public documents issued by government bodies — birth, death and marriage certificates from a state registry, for example — may be able to go to DFAT directly without a notary. Whether DFAT will apostille a particular document as it stands is a DFAT question; check before lodging.

Language: English, French, and Quebec

Canada's official languages are English and French. An Australian document in English will usually need no translation for use in most of Canada.

Quebec is the exception to plan around. French is the working language of Quebec's public administration, and Quebec bodies may ask for a French translation of an English-language document. Some Quebec bodies specify that the translation be done by a translator certified in Quebec. If your document is bound for Quebec, ask:

• Will you accept the document in English?
• If not, whose translation do you accept — must the translator be certified in Quebec?

IRCC's translation rule

Where a document is in neither English nor French — for example, a foreign document you hold as an Australian resident — IRCC has its own translation requirements. In broad terms it asks for translations by a certified translator, or otherwise accompanied by a sworn statement from the translator, and it does not accept translations done by the applicant or their family. Read the current wording on IRCC's site for your application; the detail matters and it is theirs to define, not ours.

An affidavit from a translator is one place an Australian notary can help: translators can swear or affirm the accuracy of their translation before a notary.

Documents commonly needed

• Immigration: identity and civil status documents, police certificates, evidence of relationship, employment references. Follow IRCC's checklist exactly.
• Estates: probate documents, death certificates and powers of attorney where an Australian estate has Canadian assets, or a Canadian estate has an Australian executor.
• Property and banking: powers of attorney and identity verification for transactions in Canada. Canadian lawyers and banks often have their own preferred forms — ask for their form before drafting your own.
• Professional recognition: degrees, transcripts and registration certificates for Canadian regulators.

Provinces run their own systems

Canada is a federation, and much of what matters here — vital statistics, land titles, courts, professional regulation, the rules on marriage — is provincial. Requirements that apply in Ontario may not apply in British Columbia, and Quebec's civil law system differs again. Do not assume a friend's experience in one province carries over to another.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to go through the Canadian High Commission? For a document covered by the Convention, legalisation by a Canadian mission should no longer be necessary. If a receiving body tells you otherwise, ask it to confirm in writing, and check whether the document falls outside the Convention's scope.

My document is in English. Do I still need an apostille? Language and authentication are separate questions. English removes the need for translation in most of Canada; it says nothing about whether authentication is required. Ask the receiving body.

How long does it take? It depends on DFAT processing at the time. Do not plan to a figure quoted on a blog, including this one.