Apostille Services
Apostille Services
Singapore acceded to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (“Apostille Convention”) by depositing its instrument of accession on 18 January 2021. The accession will facilitate cross-border use of public documents through a simplified 2-step process if both countries are Contracting Parties to the Apostille Convention.
Singapore, as a Contracting Party to the Apostille Convention, will accept foreign public documents affixed with apostilles from other Contracting Parties without the need for legalisation at embassies or consulates. However, if the country is not a Contracting Party to the Apostille Convention, that foreign country may still require public documents to be legalised at the respective embassy before these documents can be accepted for use by the country.
The Apostille Convention for Singapore came into force on 16 September 2021 and Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) has been designated as Singapore’s Competent Authority under the Apostille Convention. SAL will affix an Apostille Certificate on every document which requires legalisation. However, the documents for submission to SAL must be an original version and copies are not accepted. If the original document has been laminated, you need to request the issuing agency to issue a certified true copy or an extract of the original document for SAL to apostille.
Need further legalisation?
Sometimes a client or a banking institution requires further proof of authenticity, and ask for your documents to be legalised by the embassy or consulate.
Process & Time Frame
Original documents are given to the Notary Public to be authenticated/sighted. The Notary Public will make a copy of the documents and certify these (using their Notary Public stamp and signature) as being a “True Copy” of the sighted originals. the Notary Public will affix a Notarial Certificate. The processing time for issue of the Notarial Certificate is around 1 to 2 days, from the time when document is presented to the Notary Public.
Documents with a Notarial Certificate are then submitted to the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) for affixing of the Apostille Certificate. The SAL also keeps a record of each Notarial Certificate issued. The processing time for issue of the Apostille Certificate by SAL will take about 2 to 3 days.
Cost
- The Notary Public’s fees for witnessing the signing of documents and issuing the Notarial Certificate are fixed and set out under the First Schedule of the Notaries Public Rules. The Notary Public is permitted, however, to charge a fair fee for the time needed to read and properly understand the documents to be notarised, as well as disbursements for additional costs (if any), such as: travel, translation services, etc.
- For the authentication of an original document and production of a Certified True Copy by the Notary Public (no Notarial Certificate), the cost is S$40 per page/document with the Notary Public’s stamp and signature. There is an additional cost for the issue of the Notarial Certificate and for the Apostille Certificate to be issued by SAL.
- The Notary will issue a notarial certificate for all notarised documents. The fee for this notarial certificate is S$76.08. Therefore, the total base cost for the notarisation of a document/page is S$116.08 per document (excluding handling fee of S$64.80)
- The total cost for each apostille document is S$278.08 and this includes the Notary Public fee of S$180.88 and SAL authentication and apostille fees.
Our Fees
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Our professional Process Agent fee for checking the accuracy and completeness of your documents that are to be certified as a True Copy/ Notarised, and for arranging an appointment with the Notary Public, starts from S$300.00 for the first document, and from S$50 per document thereon.
When you engage us for the apostille services, you are assured that the work is not carried out by external third-party courier services, but by our own in-house employees who have been specifically recruited and trained for the document legalisation work.
- Any out-of-pocket expenses or additional trips/time spent beyond our quotation will be charged as incurred.
The fees for the Commissioner of Oaths are fixed by
the Senate of the Singapore Academy of Law. All fees quoted exclude 8% GST.
Need help drafting or reviewing your company's official documents?
Contact us or request an appointment with us. Our corporate secretarial team and legal counsel are here to assist you!
Contact Us:
Address:
10 Anson Road, #21-07 International Plaza, 079903
Office Number:
+65 6324 1922
Opening Hours:
9:00am - 6:30pm
location:
