How Long Is an Apostille Valid?

An apostille has no expiry date. The Hague Apostille Convention sets no time limit, and a DFAT apostille stays valid as long as the document it is attached to. Many receiving authorities, though, want the underlying document to be recent, so a police check or single status certificate can go stale while its apostille has not.

Key takeaways

• The Hague Convention sets no expiry for an apostille, and DFAT's apostilles carry no end date.
• What goes out of date is usually the underlying document, not the apostille.
• Receiving authorities often want recent police checks, single status certificates and bank letters.
• If you replace the document, you need a new apostille on the new one.
• For non-Hague countries, the embassy sets its own rules on legalisation.
• Always ask the receiving authority how recent the document must be before you lodge.

Does an apostille expire?

No. An apostille is a certificate that confirms the signature, the capacity of the signer and the seal on a public document. Once DFAT issues it, the facts it certifies do not change: the registrar, official or notary did sign the document, in that capacity, on that date. The Convention therefore does not give apostilles an expiry date, and you will not find one printed on an apostille issued in Australia.

That is also why an apostille does not need to be renewed. A birth certificate apostilled ten years ago still carries a valid apostille today, provided the document and the apostille are intact and still attached to each other. The apostille can also be checked through DFAT's online verification portal, which lets a receiving authority confirm that the certificate is genuine. Our overview of the Hague Apostille Convention explains what the certificate does and does not prove.

So why do some documents get refused as too old?

Because the receiving authority is judging the document, not the apostille. An apostille says nothing about whether the contents of the document are still true or current. A police check shows your record on the day it was issued. A single status certificate shows that no marriage was registered up to that date. A bank reference letter describes your account at a point in time. The longer ago that point, the less useful the document is to the person relying on it.

So many authorities set their own limits. A foreign marriage registry may want a single status certificate issued within a certain number of months. An immigration department may want a police check that is recent. A foreign bank may want a company extract that reflects the current directors. These rules come from the receiving country or organisation, and they vary widely. Our guide to a document refused as too old overseas covers what to do when this happens.

Item	Does it expire?	Who decides
The apostille itself	No expiry under the Convention	Hague Convention
Birth or death certificate	Rarely, but some authorities want a recent issue	Receiving authority
Police check	Often treated as current for a limited period	Receiving authority
Single status certificate	Often treated as current for a limited period	Receiving authority
Company extract or bank letter	Often wanted recent, to reflect current facts	Receiving authority
Power of attorney	Depends on its own terms and the law that applies	The document and the law
Embassy legalisation (non-Hague)	Depends on the embassy's rules	The embassy or destination

Which documents most often go stale?

Documents that describe a state of affairs are the ones most likely to be refused for age. The usual examples are national police checks, single status or record of no result certificates, bank statements and reference letters, company extracts from ASIC, and medical certificates. Each of these is only true as of the date it was issued, so a receiving authority reasonably wants to know the position now.

Documents that record a one-off event are less often a problem. A birth certificate, a death certificate, a degree or a court order records something that happened and does not change. Even so, some foreign authorities ask for a birth or marriage certificate issued recently, partly to catch later annotations such as a name change or a divorce. If you are not sure, ask. Our guide to apostilling a birth certificate covers ordering a fresh copy from the registry.

Does a notarised document expire?

Not in itself. A notarial certificate records what the notary did on a given date: witnessed a signature, certified a copy, administered an oath. That record stays accurate. But as with the apostille, the receiving authority may want a notarised copy or a signed declaration made recently, and the document signed may have its own time limits. A power of attorney, for example, may say when it ends, and the law that governs it may affect how long it can be relied on. Our guide to how long a notarised document stays valid goes into this in more detail.

For legal documents such as powers of attorney, deeds or documents dealing with property, ask a solicitor in the relevant country whether the document is still effective. The notary and DFAT confirm signatures; they do not advise on whether an instrument is still legally in force.

What about countries that are not in the Hague Convention?

For countries outside the Convention, DFAT issues an authentication certificate, and the document is then legalised by that country's embassy or consulate. The same basic logic applies to DFAT's certificate: it confirms a signature and does not expire. But the embassy's legalisation is governed by that country's rules, and some destinations may set their own time limits on how recently the legalisation or the underlying document must have been done.

As of the snapshot this site keeps, countries including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Taiwan were not members of the Convention. Membership changes, so check the HCCH status table on the day, and ask the embassy about its current requirements. Our guide to DFAT authentication explains that route step by step.

When do you need a new apostille?

An apostille is attached to the particular document it was issued for, so you need a new one whenever the document changes. The common cases are these.

1. You order a fresh document. A new police check or a recently issued birth certificate is a different document, so it needs its own apostille.
2. You sign again. If a power of attorney or declaration is re-signed before a notary, the new notarial certificate needs a new apostille.
3. The document is damaged or separated. If the apostille is detached, or the document is torn, altered or laminated, the combination may no longer be accepted.
4. The certificate type was wrong. A document sent to a non-Hague country needs authentication and embassy legalisation instead.
5. The destination changes. An apostille works in any member country, but a different destination may have different rules about age or translation.

If your apostille has been lost or damaged, the fix is usually to lodge the document, or a replacement document, with DFAT again. Our guide to the wrong certificate type covers the case where the apostille was valid but not what the destination needed.

Can I reuse one apostilled document for several purposes?

Often, yes, as long as each receiving authority accepts it. The apostille does not name the destination country, so an apostilled degree could be used for a job in Spain and later for study in Italy. The practical limit is that the receiving body usually keeps what you give it. If you expect to need the same document more than once, it can be sensible to get several apostilled originals or notarised copies at the start. Our guide to multiple certified copies explains how that works with a notary.

Be careful with documents that go stale. A police check apostilled for one visa application may be too old by the time you apply for another, even though the apostille is still valid. In that case you will need a new check and a new apostille.

Common mistakes about apostille validity

The most common mistake is getting a time-sensitive document apostilled too early. People order a police check, get it apostilled, and then wait months before lodging an application abroad, only to be told the check is too old. Plan the order of steps so the document is fresh when it reaches the receiving authority, and ask about its time limit before you begin.

Another mistake is assuming the apostille date is the date that matters. Most authorities look at the date the underlying document was issued, not the date of the apostille. A third is removing the staple or ribbon joining the apostille to the document to make copies, which can make the pair unacceptable. Keep the document and its apostille together, exactly as DFAT returned them.

Here is an illustration, not a real case.

Tom needs a national police check for a work visa abroad. He orders the check, has it apostilled by DFAT, and then his job offer is delayed. When he finally applies, the foreign immigration office says it only accepts police checks issued within a recent period, and his has fallen outside it. The apostille is still valid, but it is attached to a document the office will no longer rely on. Tom orders a new police check, has that apostilled, and lodges it straight away. Next time, he asks about the time limit before ordering.

In short

An apostille does not expire: the Hague Convention sets no time limit, and DFAT's certificate stays valid for as long as the document it is attached to. What goes out of date is usually the document itself, because receiving authorities often want recent police checks, single status certificates and similar records. Ask the receiving authority how recent the document must be, and time your apostille accordingly. Our apostille and authentication services page explains how this works with us.

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Not sure whether your apostilled document is still recent enough? Send us the receiving body's instructions, and we will explain each step before you book.