Effective January 11, 2024, Canada can issue apostilles for documents intended for abroad. In Quebec, the Ministère de la Justice is responsible for the apostille process.

Note: Original documents issued by a Quebec public body and some other bodies, e.g., birth, death and marriage certificates, good conduct certificate, certificate of conformity with an enterprise register or degrees/diplomas, must be sent directly to the Ministère de la Justice for an apostille request if the country of destination is a signatory of the Apostille Convention.

All federal documents must be sent directly to Global Affairs Canada.

Examples of bodies include: Registrar of civil status – Quebec Enterprise Register – Quebec Ministère de l’Éducation – Barreau du Québec – Quebec Ministère de la Justice – Register of Personal and Movable Real Rights – Sûreté du Québec – Quebec courts

The Chambre des notaires du Québec’s certification department may be required to refuse documents issued by entities covered by the law—even if the request was made before the law came into force.

For notarial acts and documents requiring official certificates from a notary, you must first obtain a quality and authenticity certificate from the Chambre des notaires before going to the Ministère de la Justice to apply for an apostille:

1. Obtain a quality and authenticity certificate from the Chambre des notaires (procedure further below).
2. Apply for an apostille using the form available on the Ministère de la Justice website.
3. Send the form printed from that site, along with the document and quality certificate from the Chambre des notaires, to the address indicated by the Ministère de la Justice.
4. The Direction générale des registres et de la certification checks the signature of the Secretary of the Order before affixing the apostille.
5. The apostilled document is mailed back to the client.

Do you need to obtain certification of the notary’s signature on documents to be sent abroad?

The Secretary of the Order is the person authorized to certify the official signature of a notary, member or former member of the Chambre des notaires du Québec, appearing on the documents. The Authenticity Certificate issued by the Chambre des notaires not only confirms the original signature on the documents does indeed match a notary’s signature, submitted to the Secretary of the Order, pursuant to the Notaries Act, but also establishes their capacity as notary.

If applicable, these documents must then be apostilled and/or taken to the consulate of the country where they are intended to be used and/or Global Affairs Canada, so that the signature of the Secretary of the Order may in turn be authenticated. Refer to the country of destination’s requirements for the document to determine the process to follow.

Validating the signatures at different levels gives the documents a probative force to be valid abroad, i.e., it gives the documents a higher legal value so they can be recognized abroad.

Note: We cannot authenticate documents bearing the signature of lawyers or commissioners for oaths.

Certification process