Which countries accept an apostille?

The short answer

As of the date on this page, 129 countries and territories accept an apostille under the 1961 Hague Convention, and one more has a future start date. The ones people most often ask us about: Mexico, Spain, Italy, Philippines, Colombia, Dominican Republic, India, Brazil, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, and mainland China are all members. The UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Cambodia, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Cuba and Taiwan are not, so documents for those go through embassy legalization.

Three things trip people up. First, membership starts on the entry-into-force date, not the day a country signed. Second, the list changes: China (2023), Canada (2024), Rwanda (2024), Bangladesh (2025), Algeria and Vietnam (2026) are all recent, and a lot of older web pages, including embassy pages, are out of date. Third, a country being on the list does not tell you which US office issues your apostille; that depends on who issued the document, not where it is going.

Countries and territories that accept an apostille

Source: HCCH status table, Convention of 5 October 1961 (Apostille Convention), fetched 2026-09-13. 129 countries and territories in force as of 2026-09-13; 1 with a future entry-into-force date.

Common destinations that are not members

These need the legalization chain instead of an apostille. The list is not exhaustive; if your country is not in the table above, assume legalization and ask us to confirm.

• Middle East: United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq. (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Israel are members.)
• Africa: Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, and most of the continent. (South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Rwanda and a handful of others are members.)
• Asia: Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand until 28 February 2027. (China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam are members.)
• Americas: Cuba and Haiti. Nearly every other country in the Americas is a member, including Canada since January 2024.

How to read the table

"Apostille accepted since" is the Convention's entry-into-force date for that country. For a document dated before that, the receiving party may still ask for legalization; for anything after, an apostille is the correct and only certification. Territories are covered by the country responsible for them (for example, Hong Kong and Macau under China, Puerto Rico and Guam under the United States). Where two members have lodged an objection to each other, the Convention does not apply between that pair; this is rare for US documents and we check it for your destination.

Related

• Embassy legalization for non-Hague countries
• Federal vs state apostille: who issues yours
• Country-specific requirements: Mexico, Spain, Italy, Philippines, Colombia, Dominican Republic
• How the mail-in process works