Which Countries Require Legalisation of Documents

What document legalisation means, and when an apostille is enough

Whether your UK document needs a simple apostille or full legalisation depends entirely on the country where you plan to use it. If that country is a party to the Apostille Convention, a single certificate from the FCDO is normally the end of the process. If it is not, the same document will usually need a second step at that country’s embassy or consulate in the UK.

In the UK, legalisation is handled by the Legalisation Office, which sits within the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). According to gov.uk, the Legalisation Office checks the signature, stamp or seal on a document and attaches an apostille: a certificate confirming the signature is genuine. The apostille says nothing about the content of the document, only about its origin. For a full walkthrough of the service itself, see our page on document legalisation.

Countries that accept an apostille, and countries that ask for more

The practical divide is simple: countries that have joined the Apostille Convention accept a UK apostille on its own, while the rest require embassy attestation after it. The table below shows common destinations for UK papers, but treat it as a starting point rather than a rule, because membership and embassy practice change.

The EU regulation on public documents

Inside the EU, a separate regulation on the free movement of public documents allows many papers to circulate between member states without an apostille, and provides multilingual standard forms for civil status documents such as birth and marriage certificates. That system works only between EU member states. UK documents do not benefit from it, so an FCDO apostille is still required for UK papers used in EU countries, alongside any translation requirements the receiving authority imposes.

The two-step route: FCDO apostille plus embassy attestation

For destinations outside the Apostille Convention, legalisation is a chain rather than a single stamp. First the Legalisation Office attaches the apostille, confirming the UK signature. Then the destination country’s embassy or consulate performs embassy attestation, confirming the apostille itself. Only after both steps is the document ready for use, and an e-Apostille will not satisfy an embassy that insists on paper.

Each embassy sets its own rules, and they differ more than most people expect. The Malaysian High Commission in London, for example, applies its own requirements to the documents presented for attestation, and some embassies want educational or commercial papers prepared in a particular way before they will accept them. Check the embassy’s current guidance before ordering an apostille, because the sequence matters: an attestation without an apostille underneath it is usually worthless.

Additional certifications before apostille

Not every document can go straight to the Legalisation Office. Under the gov.uk guidance, original certificates from courts (with a wet seal), public registries such as birth, marriage and death certificates or Companies House certificates, and government departments (with an official signature) can be legalised directly. Private papers such as a power of attorney, a contract, a qualification certificate or a copy of a passport or driving licence must first be certified by a UK public official, normally a notary public or a solicitor. The notary public signs and seals the copy or the signed statement, and it is that certification the apostille then covers. Some destinations also want a certified translation in the chain, so ask the receiving authority where it should sit: before the notary, or after the apostille.

How the Apostille Convention procedure works

The system is governed by the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, usually shortened to the Apostille Convention. Instead of chasing signatures through a chain of embassies, each member state designates competent authorities that issue a single standard certificate, and in the UK that role belongs to the Legalisation Office.

The Hague Conference on Private International Law maintains the Convention and publishes practical guidance, including the Apostille Handbook, which explains how competent authorities should issue and verify certificates. Verification matters in practice as much as in theory: anyone who receives your document can check the apostille against the issuing authority’s register, and receiving authorities are entitled to do so before accepting the paper. If an apostille cannot be verified, the document can be rejected no matter how genuine it is.

e-Apostille: what it changes, and where it falls short

Since September 2022 the UK has also issued apostilles electronically, according to gov.uk. An e-Apostille is the same certificate in digital form, attached to an electronic document rather than a paper one. The catch is eligibility: for an e-Apostille the underlying document must carry an advanced electronic signature or a qualified electronic signature.

That excludes most everyday papers. Registry certificates such as birth, marriage and death certificates exist only on paper, and documents signed before a notary are physical by nature, so they still follow the paper route. There is a second limitation on the receiving side: some embassies will not accept an e-Apostille for consular legalisation and insist on a paper certificate with a wet stamp. The Hague Conference on Private International Law publishes the list of participants in the electronic Apostille Programme, which includes authorities such as the U.S. Department of State, and the Apostille Handbook covers the electronic format as well. Before choosing the digital route, confirm both that your document qualifies and that everyone in the chain will accept it.

Costs, timings and how to order

The FCDO charges a fee per document, and the amount depends on the service option you choose: standard postal legalisation, the check and send route, or the premium service. Current fees and turnaround times for each option are published on gov.uk, and they change, so treat any figure quoted elsewhere, including in older guides, as out of date until you have checked the official page. The e-Apostille route follows the same online application as the paper one.

Two practical points save people money. First, if a document turns out to be ineligible, the fee is not refunded, so confirm eligibility before you pay. Second, FCDO publishes an official list of next-day service providers, guidance first issued on 1 February 2023 and updated since (most recently in September 2026), which is worth consulting if speed matters. As for the application itself, gov.uk states that to apply online you need the documents for legalisation and a credit or debit card for payment; postal applications additionally need a return address and access to a printer for the covering paperwork.

Documents issued outside the UK

Gov.uk is explicit on this point: documents issued outside the UK cannot be legalised through the UK service. A Polish birth certificate, a German diploma or any other foreign paper must be legalised in the country that issued it, then, if needed, attested by the destination country’s embassy there.

A typical case: you hold a degree issued by a university outside the UK and need it for employment in a third country. The chain of certification runs through the issuing country, not the UK, under the same 1961 Convention: the local authority or notary certifies the document, that country’s competent authority issues its own apostille, and if the destination sits outside the Apostille Convention, the destination country’s embassy in the issuing country completes the embassy attestation. Translation, where required, slots in at the stage the receiving authority specifies. Plan the sequence before you start, because doing the steps out of order usually means starting again.

See also

• Our Partner Programme
• ACRO Police Certificate: Application and Legalisation for Use Abroad
• Certified Translation for UK Visa Applications