The Government of Pakistan has formally acceded to the Hague Convention abolishing the requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille Convention) of 1961, a statement issued by the Pakistan Foreign Office said.

The convention shortens the public document authentication process to a single formality i.e. issuance of an authentication certificate called as ‘Apostille’ by the designated authority of the country where the document was issued.

Thus foreign public documents authenticated by Apostille of the document origin country can be directly presented to the concerned authorities in Pakistan without any further attestation requirement, the FO statement added.

“In line with the obligations as contracting state of the Convention, concerned authorities of Pakistan will now accept the Foreign Apostille Certificates issued by the members/contracting States of the convention from the date of entry into force i.e. 9th March 2023, without any requirement of attestation from Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Pakistan Missions abroad.”

The process of issuance of ‘Apostille Certificates’ for Pakistan-origin documents by Pakistan will also commence in few months upon completion of necessary legislation and other requirements, said the foreign office.

Other Attestation Services will continue as usual at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Camp Offices and Pakistan Missions abroad.

The new measures introduce a relief compared to the previous process of attestation and legalisation of foreign public documents, a process that was confusing, time-consuming, cumbersome and costly for most people. Becoming a formal member of the Apostille Convention is going to facilitate millions of Pakistanis.

The purpose of the Convention is to abolish the traditional multi-layered requirement of legalisation that was previously in place and replacing the often lengthy and costly process with the issuance of a single Apostille certificate by a Competent Authority in the place where the document originated.

Pakistan’s ratification of the Apostille Convention comes months after the convention entered into force for Saudi Arabia on December 7, 2022. Saudi Arabia is the 5th Arab country to join the Hague Convention after Morocco, Tunisia, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and Oman.