Which documents may be apostillised? 

The Convention applies only to public documents. These are documents emanating from an authority or official connected with a court or tribunal of the State (including documents issued by an administrative, constitutional or ecclesiastical court or tribunal, a public prosecutor, a clerk or a process-server);administrative documents; notarial acts; and official certificates which are placed on documents signed by persons in their private capacity, such as official certificates recording the registration of a document or the fact that it was in existence on a certain date and official and notarial authentications of signatures. The main examples of public documents for which Apostilles are issued in practice include birth, marriage and death certificates; extracts from commercial registers and other registers; patents; court rulings; notarial acts and notarial attestations of signatures; academic diplomas issued by public institutions. Diplomas issued by private institutions may not be apostillised directly; a "private" diploma may, however, bear an official certificate issued by a notary, Solicitor, Agency or any other person or authority competent under the law of the State of origin of the diploma to authenticate the signature on the diploma. This official certificate is a public document under the Convention and thus may be apostillised. In such a case the Apostille does not relate to the diploma itself; instead it certifies the authenticity of the certificate on or accompanying the diploma. Finally, the Convention neither applies to documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents nor to administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations (e.g., certificates of origin or import or export licenses).

The provisions of the Convention do not specify whether Apostilles should only be issued for original public documents or whether they may also be affixed to certified copies of public documents. However, in light of its practical importance, this question was expressly addressed by the 2003 Special Commission (SC). The Conclusion / Recommendation N° 11 of the meeting reads as follows: "Regarding the application of an Apostille to a certified copy of a public document, the SC concluded that Article 1 of the Convention applies. Individual States, however, may decline to issue an Apostille to the certified copy of a document on the grounds of public policy." (The full text of the Conclusions and Recommendations of the 2003 SC is available under "Documents related to 2003 Special Commission"). The last part of the Conclusion as regards a possible refusal to issue Apostilles on certified copies was mainly intended to address the specific issue of passports copies.