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Apostille Process for PH Documents

The Philippine government will now accept documents apostilled by foreign governments instead of requiring legalization or consular authentication. As of May 14, 2019, the Philippines is a member of the Apostille Convention, meaning documents executed in the Philippines can be apostilled by the Department of Foreign Affairs for use in other member countries. Documents executed abroad only need an apostille from the country where they were executed to be used in the Philippines. An apostille certifies the authenticity and authority of a document, unlike consular authentication which involves certification by a Philippine embassy. Certain conditions regarding dates and countries' membership in the Apostille Convention must be met for the apostille process to apply.

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205 views3 pages

Apostille Process for PH Documents

The Philippine government will now accept documents apostilled by foreign governments instead of requiring legalization or consular authentication. As of May 14, 2019, the Philippines is a member of the Apostille Convention, meaning documents executed in the Philippines can be apostilled by the Department of Foreign Affairs for use in other member countries. Documents executed abroad only need an apostille from the country where they were executed to be used in the Philippines. An apostille certifies the authenticity and authority of a document, unlike consular authentication which involves certification by a Philippine embassy. Certain conditions regarding dates and countries' membership in the Apostille Convention must be met for the apostille process to apply.

Uploaded by

Jet Garcia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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20 August 2019

MEMO RE: Apostille Convention

Please be guided that beginning May 14, 2019, the Philippine government will now accept apostilled
foreign documents as replacement for legalization or red-ribbon consular authentication with the
Philippine Embassy.

As a background, the Philippines officially acceded to the Apostille Convention on May 14, 2019. This
means that beginning such date, if a person needs to use, in another country, a public document executed
in the Philippines, the Department of Foreign Affairs will now issue instead an apostille, if the foreign
country of destination is a member of the Apostille Convention.

In reverse, if a person needs to use a document executed abroad, that person will only get such document
apostilled by the designated government agency (usually the Foreign Affairs Office equivalent) of the
country where the document was executed. Such document may now be used in the Philippines even
without red-ribbon consular authentication.

The function of an apostille is similar to red-ribbon consular authentication. Under the Apostille
Convention, an apostille certifies “the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which the person
signing the document has acted and, where appropriate, the identity of the seal or stamp which it bears”.

However, an apostille is different from consular authentication because the apostille is issued by the
government of the country where the document was executed. It is that foreign government that verifies
and certifies that the document is legitimate. On the other hand, in legalization or consular authentication,
it is the Philippine embassy that authenticates the document.

A sample apostille is herein attached as Annex A. Kindly note that the apostilles issued by each country
may differ in style, however, the general form should follow the format of the Annex.

For your guidance, please take note of the following:

1. The process of apostilling documents shall only apply if the country of origin of the document and
the country of destination are BOTH members of the Apostille Convention (except for Austria,
Finland, Germany, and Greece, which declined to the accession of the Philippines to the
Convention). Please refer to Annex B for the list of member countries.
2. If the country of origin of the document is NOT a member of the Apostille Convention, the
document must go through legalization or red-ribbon consular authentication.
3. The process of apostilling documents shall only apply if the document was executed on or after
May 14, 2019.
4. If the document was executed before May 14, 2019, the document must go through legalization
or red-ribbon consular authentication.

If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you.
Annex A
Annex B

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