Do you need to get documents certified as to the authenticity of the signature or get apostilled in Canada?
Some public documents, of which signature and seal have to be “authenticated” and “legalized” – this is another way of calling the process- or, now, as of January 11, 2024, get an “apostille” by the Government of Canada for the documents to be used outside of Canada.
Essentially, the apostille process in Canada refers to the authentication and legalization process of the documents by the appropriate Canadian government authority.
An Apostille certifies 2 things:
1) the authenticity of signature and the seal on the original document; and
2) authority of the issuer, lawyer, notary or other official
this photo is from the BC government website
Since I live in Vancouver, British Columbia (BC), I can talk about where I sent documents for authentication in specific to my location based on my experience.
In BC, we mail in the documents that require authentication to the Registrar, Official Documents, or Deputy Registrar, Official Documents in the Order in Council (OIC) Administration Office in Victoria.
The documents that need Apostille certification or authentication must first be notarized by a lawyer or notary in BC. It is important to check with the lawyer or notary (please ask them!) whether the lawyer or notary is already on file with OIC Administration Office in Victoria. Otherwise, it will take a really long (and I mean looooooong) time to get back the documents apostilled or authenticated.
Once notarized, complete the document authentication request form online and pay the fee of $20 per document that requires authentication. You can go to Canada Post or other courier offices to send the notarized documents with payment (if payment not made online) to the OIC Administration.
You can do it yourself following the instructions here or on the government website or you can delegate this work to the lawyer’s office or notary. If you do it yourself, you have more control over the situation than relying on the lawyer or notary. Once the documents have been authenticated, each document will have an Apostille certificate attached and will be sent back to your mailing address. It usually takes about 2-3 weeks. Recently, it took almost one month.
You will need a printer! I don’t have a printer at home, so I went to the public library nearby to complete the form online and print. It’s 25 cents per page. They accept cash only.
You can send to the OIC Administration Office by regular mail or you can choose to send by registered mail for fast delivery with tracking – you can go with whichever service you are comfortable with – with or without a self-addressed prepaid return envelope
If, for some reason, the OIC Administration Office cannot authenticate the document(s), the OIC Administration Office will send the document(s) back with a note.
If you have any questions, you can send an email to this email address: BCAuthentication@gov.bc.ca. You will receive a email receipt confirmation email. It takes a few days to get a response.
① Gather documents for authentication / for Apostille certification
② Take the documents to be notarized to a lawyer or BC Notary who is on file with OIC Administration Office in Victoria
③ Complete the ‘BC Document Authentication Request’ form on the website:
https://pay.gov.bc.ca/public/lsb/bcDocAuthRequest
** I recommend to complete the form on your desktop or laptop. One time I filled out the form on the phone and tried to pay online by credit card, I had an issue. Payment did not go through on mobile web **
④ Print the completed BC Document Authentication Request form and sign & date!
⑤ Mail the completed and signed form and the documents to the OIC office
** My recommendation is to send by registered mail with tracking because you will have spent so much time, effort and money to come this far, so you want to make sure that the documents along with the completed and signed form have been delivered safely to the OIC office **
The mailing address of the Order in Council (OIC) Administration Office is as follows:
Ministry of Attorney General
OIC Administration Office
Attention: BC Authentication Program
1001 Douglas Street
Victoria, BC V8W 3C5
Payment Options:
– paid online on the BC Document Authentication Request form by Mastercard, Mastercard Debit, Visa, Visa Debit or
American Express OR
– Mail with the documents – money order, bank draft or personal or business cheque payable to the Minister of Finance
Instructions (page 1) ⇨
Applicant Contact Info (page 2) ⇨
Return Mailing Address (page 3)
Note: The Return Mailing Address page is for return mailing address. Documents on the request form will be returned to this address by regular mail. If you want, you can provide a prepaid return envelope or arrange a courier service – which you must indicate on the form you send to OIC Administration Office. If you need to arrange pick up once the documents are ready to be returned, you can write those instructions in the instructions box.
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There are 5 different document types under ‘Document type*‘:
⤷ If the document that requires authentication does not belong to any of the first 4 categories, simply select ‘Notarized Documents’. As a gentle reminder, the lawyer or notary who notarized the documents should be on file with the OIC Administration Office to avoid delays.
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You can either pay online using credit card or debit card OR you can mail the $20/document with documents:
PayBCHome / BC Document Authentication Request / Document(s) to be Authenticated/ Review Information / Payment Options / Print, Sign and Date your Complete Form (Final page)
Completed Form: BC Document Authentication Request (Page 1)
⇨Completed Form: BC Document Authentication Request (Page 2)
* SIGN and DATE * ⇨Completed Form: BC Document Authentication Request (Page 3: Instructions Page; do not needed to be included in the mail)
! Reminder: Don’t forget to SIGN and DATE this page!!
Note: You can list up to 20 documents on 1 request form and send those (up to) 20 documents for authentication in one envelope. All documents that are mailed to the OIC Administration Office in Victoria must be listed on the request form on the ‘Document(s) to be Authenticated’ page online.
If sending payment, the cheques/bank draft/money order should be made payable to the Ministry of Finance.
The authenticated documents will come with the Apostille certificates (one per each set of documents). They come binded. Please do not take them apart! If you do… well, there’s a risk of the ‘authenticated/apostilled’ documents not being accepted. This has never happened to me yet, so I’m not sure, but I would think it’s safe not to take them apart!!
The Apostille certificate looks like this:
For more information, please visit the BC government website ‘Guide to the Authentication of Documents’ by clicking this link: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/government-id/guide-to-the-authentication-of-documents
Courts keep original court documents, so you need to get a court certified documents from the court at the BC Supreme /Provincial court registry. When you ask for certified copies of court documents at the court registry, the certified copies of the requested court documents will be stamped and signed with ink by a court employee.