Documents You Need Notarised When Importing Goods

If you are importing goods into Australia, the honest starting point is that most imports involve no notary at all. Australian customs clearance runs on documents your supplier produces, a customs broker lodges, and Australian agencies issue. None of them needs an Australian notarial certificate.

A notary appears when someone outside Australia — your supplier, its government, or a foreign court — needs something from you. This page follows an import from first order to delivery and marks the few points where that happens.

The documents in an ordinary import, and who issues them

Walk through a typical shipment and note where each document comes from:

• Purchase order or contract — between you and the supplier, usually signed by each party in its own country with no formalities.
• Commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading or air waybill — issued by the supplier and its carrier, overseas.
• Certificate or declaration of origin, if you are claiming a lower duty rate under a free trade agreement — issued overseas by the supplier, the producer or a body in their country.
• Import permits for regulated goods — issued by the relevant Australian agency, based on its own application process.
• Your authority to the customs broker — the broker's own form.

Every document here is either foreign, and dealt with in the country that issued it, or Australian and going to an Australian agency that sets its own requirements. An Australian notary cannot vouch for a foreign supplier's invoice or origin certificate, and Australian agencies do not ask for notarised copies of their own paperwork.

Where a notary does come in

1. End-user certificates for controlled goods

Some goods need an export licence from the supplier's government before they can leave: dual-use items, certain chemicals, some technology and anything defence-related. The licensing authority often wants a signed statement from the end user — you — saying what the goods will be used for, where, and that they will not be passed on.

These end-user certificates are the most common reason an Australian importer needs a notary. The exporting country may require your signature notarised, and sometimes authenticated by DFAT and legalised at its embassy. The form almost always comes from the supplier or its authority; do not draft your own. The notary witnesses the signature of the person signing for your company and confirms their authority to sign. They do not verify what the statement says, and the statement is your company's responsibility.

2. Proving your company to a supplier or its government

A supplier setting up a long-term arrangement may want proof that your company exists and that the person signing can bind it — particularly for an exclusive distributorship, an agency agreement, or credit terms. In some countries a distributor or agency agreement has to be registered with a local authority before it can be enforced or before the supplier can export under it.

What they want is usually one of:

• a notarised copy of your company's registration and current extract
• a notarial certificate confirming the company's existence and the signatory's authority
• the agreement itself signed before a notary

Our pages on notarising company incorporation documents and notarising for a company rather than an individual explain what to bring.

3. Appointing someone to act for you in the supplier's country

Importers sometimes appoint a buying agent, an inspection company or a local lawyer in the supplier's country — to deal with export formalities, to register your brand there, or to follow up quality problems. If the appointment is by power of attorney, the other country's law decides the form, and it will often need to be signed before a notary and apostilled or legalised. Get the wording from the person who will use it. See our page on notarising a power of attorney.

4. When a shipment goes wrong

If a dispute with a supplier ends up before a court or arbitral body in its country, you may need to swear affidavits or sign authorities for a foreign lawyer. The foreign lawyer will tell you the form required. That is a notarial job; the dispute itself is a matter for lawyers in both countries.

Getting the details consistent

Whatever you sign, the name of your company should appear exactly as it does on the company register, and match the name on the supplier's invoices, the licence application and your customs entry. A foreign licensing authority comparing an end-user certificate against an export application will notice a missing "Pty" or an old trading name.

Frequently asked questions

My supplier sent a certificate of origin. Does it need notarising here? No. It is a foreign document. If it has to be authenticated, that happens in the country that issued it.

Can our customs broker witness an end-user certificate? Only if the exporting country's form allows it. Most that require witnessing specify a notary.

Does the end-user certificate need an apostille? It depends on the exporting country. Whether that country is an apostille member must be checked against the HCCH status table on the day; if it is not, DFAT authentication and embassy legalisation follow the notary.