Apostille Convention

The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, the Apostille Convention, or the Apostille Treaty, is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. It specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states. A certification under the terms of the convention is called an apostille (from Latin "post illa" and then ) or Hague apostille. It is an international certification comparable to a notarisation in domestic law, and normally supplements a local notarisation of the document. If the convention applies between two countries, such an apostille is sufficient to certify a document's validity, and removes the need for double-certification, by the originating country and then by the receiving country.
Procedure.
Apostilles are affixed by "Competent Authorities" designated by the government of a state which is party to the convention. A list of these authorities is maintained by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. Examples of designated authorities are embassies, ministries, courts or (local) governments. For example, in the United States, the Secretary of State of each state and their deputies are usually competent authorities. In the United Kingdom all apostilles are issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Milton Keynes.
To be eligible for an apostille, a document must first be issued or certified by an officer recognised by the authority that will issue the apostille. For example, in the US state of Vermont, the Secretary of State maintains specimen signatures of all notaries public, so documents that have been notarised are eligible for apostilles. Likewise, courts in the Netherlands are eligible to place an apostille on all municipal civil status documents directly. In some cases, intermediate certifications may be required in the country in which the document originates before it is eligible for an apostille. For example, in New York City, the Office of Vital Records (which issues, among other things, birth certificates) is not directly recognised by the New York Secretary of State. As a consequence, the signature of the City Clerk must be certified by the County Clerk of New York County to make the birth certificate eligible for an apostille. In Japan all official documents are issued in Japanese; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA, JAPAN) can then provide an apostille for these documents. In India the apostille certification can be obtained from the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, after authentication by the administration of the Indian state where the document was issued (for educational documents).
Information.
The apostille itself is a stamp or printed form consisting of ten numbered standard fields. At the top is the text "Apostille", under which the text "Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961" (French for "Hague Convention of 5 October 1961") is placed. This title must be written in French for the apostille to be valid (article 4 of the Convention). In the numbered fields, the following information is added,which may be in the official language of the authority that issues it or in a second language:
The information can be placed on the document itself, on the back of the document, or attached to the document as an allonge.
Eligible documents.
Four types of documents are mentioned in the convention:
Legalization.
A state that has not signed the Convention must specify how foreign legal documents can be certified for its use. Two countries may have a special convention on the recognition of each other's public documents, but in practice this is infrequent. Otherwise, the document must be certified by the foreign ministry of the country in which the document originated, and then by the foreign ministry of the government of the state in which the document will be used; one of the certifications will often be performed at an embassy or consulate. In practice this means the document must be certified twice before it can have legal effect in the receiving country. For example, as Canada is not a signatory, Canadian documents for use abroad must be certified by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa or by a Canadian consular official abroad, and subsequently by the relevant government office or consulate of the receiving state.
List of contracting states.
, 120 states are contracting states of the Apostille Convention. They include 73 of the 82 Hague Conference on Private International Law member states in addition to 47 other states.
The convention is in force between all states, unless an existing party objects to the accession of a new state. In that case the convention enters into force for the new state, except with regards to the new state and the objecting state(s). 
Abuse.
The apostille does not give information regarding the quality of the content in the underlying document but certifies the signature (and the capacity of who placed it) and correctness of the seal/stamp on the document which must be certified. In 2005 the Hague Conference surveyed its members and produced a report in December 2008 which expressed serious concerns about diplomas and degree certificates issued by diploma mills. The possible abuse of the system was highlighted: "Particularly troubling is the possible use of diploma mill qualifications to circumvent migration controls, possibly by potential terrorists." (page 5) The risk comes from the fact that the various government stamps give the document an air of authenticity without anyone having checked the underlying document. "An official looking certificate may be issued to a copy of a diploma mill qualification, and then subsequently issued with an apostille, without anyone having ever verified the signature on, let alone the contents of, the diploma." (page 7) Further member states indicated "they would be obliged to issue an apostille for certification of a certified copy of a diploma issued by a diploma mill". (page 15) The evaluation commission of the Hague Conference expressed concern as to whether this issue could affect the entire convention. "... the apostille does not 'look through the certification' and does not relate to the diploma itself ... There is a clear risk that such practices may eventually undermine the effectiveness and therefore the successful operation of the apostille Convention". (page 5)
In February 2009 the Hague Conference recommended to amend the wording on the apostille to make it clear that only the seal and the signature were authenticated. The wording to be added is:
Validity.
Technically, an apostille never expires once issued. However, there are some factors which may render an apostilled document unusable in certain situations. A document or certificate with an apostille acquired outside of the convention may need to be re-processed before use. For example, for a work permit in China, the apostille on documentation must have been issued within the past six months in order to be valid for the application.
Further stages of legalisation.
Some Apostille Convention member states require additional stages after an apostille, dependent on use. For marriage in Greece, for example, a translation of the apostilled documents is required, which must be verified at the Greek Consulate before the documents can be presented for the marriage licence in-country. It's advisable to confirm the requirements in each and every case.