Apostille and Legalization of Ontario Documents
What is an apostille?
An apostille is a standardized certificate, attached to or printed on a document, that confirms the authenticity of the signature and seal of the public officer who signed it. It is issued under the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. The Convention was drawn up to simplify cross-border certification of public documents and to replace the older two-step chain of authentication plus consular legalization.
Is apostille available in Canada?
Yes. Canada acceded to the Hague Apostille Convention, and the Convention entered into force for Canada on January 11, 2024. As of that date, Ontario notarial work and most Canadian public documents can be apostilled for use in any other Hague Convention country — including the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union member states, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and most of Canada’s other trading partners.
Who issues apostilles for Ontario documents?
Under the Convention, each country designates one or more “competent authorities” to issue apostilles. In Canada the designations split federal/provincial:
- Ontario competent authority: Official Documents Services (ODS), part of Ontario’s Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement. ODS issues apostilles for Ontario notary public seals and signatures and for many Ontario-issued public documents.
- Federal competent authority: Global Affairs Canada — Authentication Services Section. GAC issues apostilles for federally-issued documents (Canadian passports, RCMP record checks, federal court documents, citizenship and immigration documents) and is also the competent authority for documents originating from jurisdictions without their own provincial registry — currently Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon.
Confirm which authority applies to your document before submitting — Ontario-notarized documents go to ODS, not to GAC.
The typical Ontario apostille path
- Notarize the document in front of an Ontario notary public.
- Submit the notarized document to ODS for an apostille certificate.
- Send the apostilled document directly to the receiving party in the destination country. No consular step is required for Convention countries.
What if the destination country is not a Hague Convention party?
A small number of countries are not Hague parties — examples include the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and a number of other jurisdictions. For these destinations the older two-step process still applies: authentication of the notary’s seal and signature by Global Affairs Canada, followed by legalization at the destination country’s embassy or consulate in Canada. The Hague Conference on Private International Law maintains an up-to-date list of member states.
For a fuller walk-through of authentication and apostille for Ontario documents, see our Authentication and Apostille of Ontario Documents page.
Government of Canada reference: https://www.international.gc.ca/gac-amc/about-a_propos/services/authentication-authentification/
