An Irish degree, certificate or contract carries no weight abroad on its own. A foreign registry has no way of knowing whether the signature on it is genuine, so it asks for that signature to be authenticated here first. That is what this page covers. Everywhere else on our site we translate foreign documents so an Irish office will accept them. Here the traffic runs the other way.
We run the full chain so you are not left managing three or four separate parties yourself. We translate where translation is needed, arrange the notary, and lodge the file with the Department of Foreign Affairs. If the destination sits outside the Hague Convention, we carry on to the embassy stage as well. Send a photo and tell us the country, and you will get back a written price and a realistic schedule before anything begins.
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An apostille is a certificate the Department of Foreign Affairs attaches to your document. It confirms one thing: that the signature and seal on the document belong to a real Irish public official, notary or solicitor. A foreign authority can then accept it without having to verify an Irish signature it has never seen before.
Here is the part that causes most of the confused enquiries we get. The apostille authenticates the signature, not the content. An apostilled degree is not proof that you passed. It is proof that the registrar who signed it really is that registrar. If the office abroad is querying what the document says rather than who signed it, an apostille will not help. Paying for one will not change their answer.
Only the DFA can issue one in Ireland. No notary, solicitor or agency can apply the stamp themselves, and Irish embassies abroad cannot do it either. What everyone else does is prepare the document so the DFA will accept it, which is where nearly all the delay happens.
Four things people expect it to fix, and it does not
The DFA checks the signature and seal. It does not read the document or confirm that anything inside it is correct.
The DFA handles Irish documents. A certificate issued abroad is apostilled in the country that issued it, before it travels here.
If the receiving country works in another language, the translation is a separate job, and often the apostille page needs translating too.
The DFA will not advise on that. Only the office abroad can say what it wants, which is why we check with them first.
Every outbound document follows the same order. Some skip a step, none skip ahead. The fourth step only applies if the destination country sits outside the Hague Convention.
Only if the receiving country needs it. The translation is signed, dated, carries the translator's qualification and is bound with the original.
An Irish notary or solicitor signs. This gives the DFA a recognised signature to authenticate, and it is what turns a private paper into one the State can stamp.
The Department authenticates that signature and attaches the certificate. For a Hague destination the document is finished at this point.
Only for destinations outside the Convention. That country's embassy in Ireland adds a second stamp after the DFA has authenticated the document.
Step two is where people most often go wrong on their own. Whether a document needs a notary at all depends on what kind of document it is. Our notarised translation page sets out that difference in full, so we will not repeat it here.
This one answer decides your whole route, your cost and your timeline. It is also the question most online advice gets wrong, because the membership list keeps moving and old articles are never updated.
Membership changes. A state joins, and the Convention only takes effect for it months later, once an objection window closes. Any fixed number on a website goes out of date within a year. What matters is the position on the day you send your document, so we check the current status table instead of quoting a figure.
A country can be a member and still not accept apostilles from one particular state, because that state objected when it joined. It is rare, but it happens, and it is invisible if you are only looking at a membership list. This is the detail that catches out even careful people.
China deposited its accession in March 2023 and the Convention entered into force for it on 7 November 2023. Documents going to mainland China generally no longer need the old embassy route. Plenty of pages online still describe the pre-2023 process, which sends people to a consulate they no longer need.
Saudi Arabia joined in 2022, with the Convention entering into force in December of that year. It is the Gulf state that changed. The UAE, Qatar and Kuwait have not, so documents heading there still need the full embassy route, and we cover that in the next section.
The principle is simple enough. Both countries have to be in, and the Convention has to be in force between those two specific states. Tell us the destination and we check that on the day rather than working from a list someone wrote two years ago.
If the destination is outside the Convention, an apostille is not the right instrument and will not be accepted. The document takes the older route instead, and the second half of it is the part nobody can schedule precisely.
The UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and a number of other states remain outside the Convention. Vietnam and Thailand have been moving towards joining, which is exactly why we check status on the day rather than relying on a page written last year. The Gulf is the most common destination our clients ask about.
The DFA authenticates the document first, exactly as it would for an apostille. That authenticated document then goes to the destination country's embassy or consulate in Ireland, which adds its own stamp. Some missions add further requirements of their own, such as a specific cover letter, a particular translation, or an additional fee.
Each mission sets its own opening hours, appointment system and processing pace. None of them publish service standards the way a government department does. A stage that takes days at one embassy can take weeks at another, and the same embassy can change without notice. We find out their current position before you commit rather than after.
Because the embassy leg is the slow one, everything before it should be right first time. A document that comes back from the DFA for a paperwork fault does not just lose those days, it pushes the embassy stage back too. For contracts and court papers our legal translation services run alongside this to the same standard.
There is no single right answer, and that is exactly why people get it wrong. Three patterns cover almost every case, and which one applies is decided by the office receiving your document, not by us.
The most common. The original is stamped, then the whole finished document is translated, apostille certificate included. This works when the receiving authority wants to read everything in its own language, and it is usually the cheaper path because nothing is done twice.
Used where the receiving country wants the translation to stand on its own rather than sit behind the original. The translation is certified, notarised, and then the notary's signature is apostilled. Two stamps, two fees, and noticeably longer.
Some countries only accept translations produced by their own sworn translators. In that case the Irish document is apostilled here and translated there. Nothing we do in Ireland will substitute for their translator, and it is better to know that before ordering.
Apostilling first, then finding out the destination wants the apostille certificate itself translated, when your translation was already finished. The certificate carries a number, a date, a signatory and an issuing authority. Missing it means going back to the translator and paying again.
“Do you require the apostille certificate itself to be translated, and will you accept a translation carried out in Ireland?” Those two answers decide your whole order, and they cost nothing to obtain. Send us their reply and we will build the job around it.
Three broad families, and the difference between them is simply whether the document already carries a signature the State recognises. Those that do go straight to the DFA. Those that do not need a notary first.
Birth, marriage and death certificates from the General Register Office, along with Freedom to Marry certificates and Garda certificates showing no criminal record. These carry a State signature already, so no notary is needed. It must be the official certificate, not a photocopy.
Court orders, judgments and probate papers carry an official seal, so they usually go straight through. Company records from the CRO, certificates of incorporation, good standing and board resolutions are the common business set. Each separate document takes its own stamp and its own fee.
Powers of attorney, affidavits, declarations and commercial agreements have no public signature of their own. A notary signs first, and the DFA then authenticates the notary. The wording matters as much as the stamp, because a power of attorney drafted for Irish use is often refused abroad.
A translation we produce can be apostilled too, but only once a notary has signed it. The notary is what the Department authenticates, never the translator directly. Ask the receiving office whether they want this before ordering, because it is a second stamp.
The most requested document for overseas employment. Universities sign these themselves rather than the State, so they usually need notarising first. Employers abroad often want the transcript stamped as well as the parchment, so confirm that before paying for a single stamp.
A full dossier is charged as one pack rather than per page, which makes it far cheaper than stamping each document separately. One expired paper inside the pack can hold up the whole thing, so the order in which you gather them matters.
Where a certificate is not in English or Irish, a translation has to accompany it. Our birth certificate translation and marriage certificate translation pages cover those two on their own.
Nobody controls all four stages, so a single headline number is misleading. Here is each stage, roughly what it takes, and which ones can actually be compressed when a deadline is tight.
| Stage | Typical | Can it be compressed? | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obtaining the document | Varies | No | A replacement GRO certificate or Garda clearance runs to its own schedule |
| Certified translation | 1–2 days | Yes | We control this stage and can prioritise it when a date is fixed |
| Notarisation | 1–2 days | Usually | Depends on notary availability, but appointments can often be brought forward |
| DFA apostille | A few working days | Partly | Lodging in person beats posting, but the DFA sets its own pace and gives no guarantee |
| Embassy legalisation | Unpredictable | No | Each mission runs its own hours and rules, and none commit to a turnaround |
A straightforward apostille for a Hague destination is often finished within about a week from the day we receive the document, and sometimes faster. We will always give you a schedule based on current conditions rather than a promise, because the two stages that matter most are not ours to control. Our office is at 6 Fern Road, Sandyford, Dublin 18, and there is a person on the end of +353 87 441 3817.
Three routes, three starting prices, and you know which one you are on before anything begins. Prices start at €60.
Apostille Only
Your document is ready · we handle the DFA
Translation + Apostille
We translate, bind, notarise and lodge it
Full Legalisation
Non-Hague destinations · DFA and embassy
The figures above are starting prices, not a final quote. What you pay depends on the document type, how many stamps are needed and which country it is going to. The Department's own stamp fee is set by the State and applies on top. Your final price is confirmed in a written quotation before any work begins, so nothing starts until you have approved the cost.
Job offers, weddings, tenders and adoptions. The people whose Irish paperwork had to clear a counter on the other side of the world.
"Degree and Garda clearance for a job in Dubai. They explained the embassy stage upfront and told me not to order the clearance too early. Everything cleared first time."
"I had been told to book a consulate appointment for China. They checked and said it had not been needed since 2023. An apostille was enough."
"They asked me one question to put to the university abroad, about whether the apostille page itself needed translating. It did. That saved me paying twice."
"My first attempt came back because the translation was not bound the way the Department needs it. They redid it properly and it went straight through."
"Power of attorney for a property sale in Spain. They flagged that the wording had to change before the notary signed, which saved a second trip entirely."
"We send client files here instead of running them ourselves. They spot problems with a bundle before it goes anywhere near the Department."
"A full adoption dossier. They found one paper that had expired and would have held up the entire pack. Careful, unhurried work."
"They were honest that the embassy leg was outside their control and gave me a range rather than a date. It landed inside that range."
"Five company documents for a tender. They costed every stamp upfront so there was no surprise at the end, and the bundle was accepted."
"I live in Berlin and needed an Irish certificate stamped. Posted it over, they ran the whole thing and sent it straight on to Germany."
These are the questions people actually ask before sending anything over. If yours is not here, just ask on WhatsApp.
Tell us what the document is and where it is going. We will confirm how many stamps it needs, whether a notary is involved, whether the embassy stage applies, and what it will cost, in writing, before anything begins.
No separate trips to a translator, a notary and the Department. One Dublin team running the chain, a written quotation first, and a free reissue if our paperwork is ever the reason something comes back.