Public Holiday Closures and Document Processing

A public holiday does not delay "your document". It closes whichever office your document happens to be sitting in that day. An overseas document chain passes through several offices, in more than one city and often more than one country, and each keeps its own calendar. That is how a single long weekend can turn into a week's delay, and how a document can sit untouched for a fortnight over the new year without anything going wrong.

This page does not list holiday dates. They differ by state and territory, some are local to particular regions, substitute days apply when a holiday falls on a weekend, and several foreign holidays move every year. What follows is how to work out which calendars apply to you and what to do about them.

Each step has its own calendar

Work through the chain and note where each step physically happens:

The issuing body. A registry, court, university or agency works to the calendar of the state or territory where it sits. A certificate from an interstate registry follows that state's holidays, not yours.

The notary. Your local calendar, including any regional holiday in your area.

The translator. Wherever they work, which may be another state or another country.

DFAT. Its offices observe the public holidays of the place where they are located. If you post documents to DFAT, the relevant calendar is the one where they are processed, not where you live.

The embassy or consulate. Usually closed on the public holidays of the Australian city it is in and on its own country's national holidays. Some missions also close for religious observances whose dates follow a lunar calendar and are confirmed only shortly beforehand.

Post and couriers. Neither usually delivers on public holidays, and delivery estimates are typically in business days. A courier arriving at a closed office may take the package back to the depot.

The receiving authority overseas. Its own national calendar. Some countries have extended closures — around the new year, national days or a summer period — during which government offices do little or no processing.

Business days, not calendar days

Published processing times are usually stated in business or working days. A timeframe of a certain number of business days that spans a public holiday, or the late-December to early-January period, takes noticeably longer in calendar terms. When you check a published timeframe, count it forward on a calendar for the office concerned, not for your own city.

Queues also build around holiday periods. Offices often process a backlog after reopening, so the days immediately after a closure can be slower than usual.

The periods that catch people

The end of the year. In Australia, the Christmas and new year public holidays combine with widespread business closures and reduced services. Many notaries, translators and agents also close for a period. Documents lodged just before this period can sit until well into January.

Long weekends that differ by state. Several holidays are observed on different dates, or not at all, in different states and territories. If your documents cross state lines — an interstate registry, a DFAT office in another city — check both calendars.

Foreign holidays in the destination. Major festivals and national holidays abroad can close both the embassy here and the receiving authority there. Where dates follow a lunar calendar, confirm them for the current year.

Your recency window. If a receiving authority requires a document to be issued within a set period, that clock does not pause for holidays. A document obtained just before a long closure can lose much of its usable life before anyone processes it.

How to plan around closures

1. List every step with its location — city and country — before you start.
2. Check the public holiday calendar for each location for the weeks the step will happen, including local and regional holidays.
3. Check the embassy's own closure days on its official website. Missions usually publish them.
4. Avoid dispatching original documents just before a long closure. A package that arrives at a closed office sits in a depot or a mailroom, which is neither fast nor secure.
5. Obtain short-life documents last, after you have checked that no closure falls between issue and submission.
6. Ask the receiving authority whether it will accept a scanned copy as an interim if a closure makes the deadline impossible. Ask before the deadline, not after.

Common questions

Does DFAT process documents on public holidays? Treat holiday closures as the norm unless DFAT says otherwise for a particular office. Check its current published information.

My state has a holiday but the embassy's city does not. Is the embassy open? Usually the embassy follows its own city's calendar and its own country's holidays. Check its website.

Can a notary see me on a public holiday? Some notaries offer out-of-hours appointments; many do not. Ask the notary directly.

Why did my courier delivery take an extra day when nothing was closed at my end? The delivery city, or the depot's city, may have had a holiday you did not.