Apostille and legalisation: which document needs what

Outside the EU: apostille at the court

For countries in the Apostille Convention, such as Australia, you have the original document given an apostille at a court. NederlandWereldwijd has you check two things first:

• Is there a signature on the document? No signature, no apostille. Ask the body for one, saying you'll use the document abroad.
• Are other legalisations needed first?

Someone else may collect the apostille for you, without authorisation. This is how it works further:

• Every court in the Netherlands may do it. You choose which one, regardless of where the document was issued. Only for court judgments do you have to go to the court that gave the judgment.
• On paper only. A digital document must first be officially on paper; a print of a PDF is not an original.
• At the counter it's usually done while you wait; by post you send the original along and pay on invoice. You pay a court fee per document; the current rate is on the court's page.

Some documents must first pass through another body. A diploma must first be signed by DUO before the court puts an apostille on it, and for documents from among others the Belastingdienst, the UWV and the SVB a comparable preliminary round applies. Whoever skips that makes the trip to the court twice.

Route	For which countries	Where	Cost and processing time
No legalisation, multilingual standard form	EU countries, for public documents	the municipality that drew up the certificate	no apostille needed
Apostille	countries in the Apostille Convention, such as Australia and Spain	any court	court fee per document; usually immediate at the counter
Legalisation by the Consular Service Centre	countries outside the convention	CDC, at the counter or by registered post	€ 10 per document; by post a payment request within 5 working days, then returned within 5 to 7 working days

For countries that do not belong to the convention there is thus the longer legalisation route via the Consular Service Centre (CDC). The CDC issues no apostilles itself, and says literally that for an apostille country you can go straight to the court. For our destinations (Australia, and the EU countries in any case) you don't need that route.

When does Australia actually need it?

For the visa application itself usually not. Home Affairs, the Australian department in charge of visas, works with colour scans of originals. Your assessing authority prescribes its own requirements: often certified copies or certified translations, no apostille.

For the police certificate it's mainly the deadline that counts. Home Affairs accepts such a certificate for only twelve months after issue, and that determines the moment of applying.

Where the apostille does come round the corner is life after arrival: marrying, buying a house, having a degree registered with a professional register. You can still arrange those documents easily now, and later only by post from the other side of the world.

The rule of thumb: translate and legalise nothing "to be on the safe side", but ask each counter what it wants to see. Every body prescribes its own requirements, and an apostille nobody asks for is money thrown away. The same principle applies to translations.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 2 of 5 of the journey, step 2.3: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Australia or go straight to step 2.3 in the open plan.