The advent of the Apostille Convention paved the way for a more convenient

authentication process in the legalization of documents through the issuance of a

certificate called an Apostille. The Convention only applies to public documents. To
determine whether a document may be a public document, reference must be made to
the law of the country in which the document was issued. In the Philippines, a document
is considered a public document, by virtue of its official or sovereign character, or
because it has been acknowledged before a notary public (except a notarial will) or a
competent public official with the formalities required by law, or because it is a public
record of a private writing authorized by law. Because of the presumption of regularity,
public documents are self-authenticating and require no further authentication in order
to be presented as evidence in court.
The Convention mentions four types of documents eligible for apostilles:
court documents;
administrative documents (e.g. vital records);
notarial acts;
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.
However, the Apostille Convention does not apply to documents issued by diplomatic or
consular officers, or to administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or
customs operations. The reason for this exclusion is that these documents are usually
already exempt from legalization.

The Certificate or an Apostille is a document which authenticates the origin of a public

document. It certifies the authenticity of the signature or seal of the person or authority
that signed or sealed the public document, and the capacity in which this was done. An
Apostille does not certify the contents of the public document to which it relates. Further,
the Apostille is strictly for use of public documents abroad. Therefore, the Apostille can
be issued for documents executed in one country party to the Convention and which is
to be used in another country which must also be a party to the Convention.

The Apostille Convention is the most widely ratified and acceded to of all the
Conventions adopted under the auspices of the Hague Conference (known as the
“Hague Conventions”). It is in force in over 100 States from all major regions
representing all major legal systems of the world, making it one of the most successful
international treaties in the area of international legal and administrative co-operation.
Apostilles are used whenever public documents need to be produced abroad. This may
occur in a multitude of cross-border situations: international marriages, international
relocations, applications for studies, residency or citizenship in a foreign State,
intercountry adoption procedures, international business transactions and foreign
investment procedures, enforcement of intellectual property rights abroad, foreign legal
proceedings, etc. The situations where an Apostille is needed are countless. As a result,
several million Apostilles are issued around the world every year, making the Apostille
Convention the most widely applied of all the Hague Conventions. With the rise in
cross-border movements and activities as a result of globalization, the Apostille
Convention is expected to continue to grow. The electronic Apostille Program (e-APP) is
designed to ensure the continuing operation of the Convention in changing
circumstances, in particular by improving and enhancing its effective and secure
operation in an electronic environment through the issuance of e-Apostilles and the
operation of e-Registers.
Purpose of the Convention
The purpose of the Convention is to abolish the requirement of legalization and to
facilitate the use of public documents abroad.
In general, a public document may be produced in the State in which it is executed
without the need for its origin to be verified. This is based on the principle that the origin
of the document lies in the document itself (acta probant sese ipsa), without the need
for additional verification of its origin. When the document is produced abroad, however,
its origin may require verification. This is because the recipient may not be familiar with
the identity or official capacity of the person signing the document, or the identity of the
authority whose seal / stamp it bears. As a result, States began to require that the origin
of a foreign public document be certified by an official who is familiar with the document.
It is against that background that the procedure known as “legalization” developed
Legalization describes the procedures whereby the signature / seal / stamp on a public
document is certified as authentic by a series of public officials along a “chain” to a point
where the ultimate authentication is readily recognized by an official of the State of
destination and can be given legal effect there. As a practical matter, Embassies and
Consulates of the State of destination located in (or accredited to) the State of origin are
ideally situated to facilitate this process. However, Embassies and Consulates do not
maintain samples of the signatures / seals / stamps of every authority or public official in
the State of origin, so an intermediate authentication between the authority or public
official that executed the public document in that State and the Embassy or Consulate is
often required. In most cases, this involves an authentication by the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of the State of origin. However, depending on the law of the State of execution, a
series of authentications may be required before the document can be presented to the
Embassy or Consulate for authentication. Then, depending on the law of the State of
destination, the seal / stamp of the Embassy or Consulate may be recognized directly
by the official in that State, or may need to be presented to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of that State for a final authentication.
Where it applies, the Apostille Convention abolishes the legalization process and
replaces it with a single formality: the issuance of an authentication certificate – called
an “Apostille” – by an authority designated by the State of origin – called the
“Competent Authority”.
At the same time, the Apostille Convention serves and upholds the same important end
result of legalization: the authentication of the origin of a public document executed in
one State and to be used in another State.
By introducing a simplified authentication process, the Convention facilitates the use of
public documents abroad. Ideally, this purpose is pursued by allowing all public
documents to be apostilled directly without the need for prior authentication within the
State of origin. Indeed, this “one-step process” is what the drafters had in mind when
the Apostille Convention was being developed, and it is how Apostilles are issued in
most Contracting States.

As of July 2022, 124 states are contracting states of the Apostille Convention. In the
Philippines, the Convention became effective last 14 May 2019. The Office of the
Consular Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will be issuing the Apostille.
In order to verify the Apostille, the DFA is required to keep a register which contains the
records as to the date and number of every Apostille it issues, as well as information
relating to the person or authority who signed or sealed the public document.

Public documents executed in Apostille-contracting countries and territories (except for

Austria, Finland, Germany and Greece) to be used in the Philippines no longer have to
be authenticated by the Philippine Embassy or Consulate General once Apostilled.

In countries and territories which are not Apostille-contracting parties, the previous
process of authentication applies. Documents still have to be authenticated by the
Philippine Embassy or Consulate General before they can be used in the Philippines.
Also, there is still a need for authentication (legalization) by the concerned Foreign
Embassies or Consulates General if the country of destination of the authenticated
document is not yet a member of the Apostille Convention.

The effect of an Apostille is limited. It only authenticates the origin of the underlying
public document. It does so by certifying the authenticity of the signature on the
document, the capacity in which the person signing the document acted and, where
appropriate, the identity of the seal or stamp which the document bears (Art. 5(2)). The
limited effect of an Apostille has been confirmed by the Special Commission.

An Apostille does not relate in any way to the content of the underlying public
document. While the public nature of the document itself may imply that its content is
true and correct, an Apostille does not enhance, or add any legal significance to, the
legal effect that the signature and / or seal would produce without an Apostille. In this
regard, the Special Commission recommends that Competent Authorities include a
notice about the limited effect of the Apostille.
An Apostille does not certify that a public document was executed in accordance with all
requirements of domestic law. It is for domestic law to determine whether defects
invalidate the public nature of a document and to what degree a Competent Authority is
responsible for scrutinising documents for such defects (see para. 230). For example,
domestic law may or may not require a Competent Authority to scrutinise whether a
notary is authorised under domestic law to execute the particular notarial act or notarial
certificate in question. The Convention certainly imposes no obligation upon a
Competent Authority to do so. Because an Apostille does not have any legal effect
beyond certifying the origin of the underlying public document, its issuance for a
document does not cure any such defects.

The Convention does not place any time limitation on the effect of an Apostille. A validly
issued Apostille therefore has effect for as long as it is identifiable and remains attached
to the underlying public document. Accordingly, an Apostille may not be rejected solely
on the basis of its age. However, this does not prevent authorities in the State of
destination, on the basis of their domestic law, from establishing time limits on the
acceptance of the underlying public document

The concept of territory is important as the Apostille Convention only applies to

public documents which have been executed “in the territory” of a Contracting State
(see Art. 1(1)).
The default position is that the Convention does not apply to “overseas
territories”, which are referred to as territories for the international relations of which the
Contracting State is responsible (Art. 13).
However, the Convention allows a Contracting State to extend the Convention to
its overseas territories as follows:
• at the time of signature, ratification or accession – by declaration; or
• at any other time thereafter – by notification to the Depositary.

The Convention does not immediately enter into force for a State once it joins. There is
a waiting period that must elapse before the Convention enters into force for that State.
The length of the waiting period depends on how the State joins the Convention:
• For States that joined by ratification, the Convention entered into force on the 60th day
after the deposit of the instrument of ratification (Art. 11(2)).
• or a State that joins by accession, the Convention enters into force on the 60th day
after the expiry of the six-month objection period following the deposit of its instrument
of accession (Art. 12(3)).