Apostille and Document Legalisation

General Info

The Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents ("Apostille Convention") facilitates the use of public documents abroad through the use of a simplified one-step process. Each Contracting Party designates their Competent Authorities, responsible for issuing certificates that attest the origin of documents produced by the Contracting Party. These certificates are known as apostilles. All Contracting Parties are obliged to accept apostilles as sufficient to verify the origin of the underlying document. This replaces the cumbersome and often costly formalities related to the legalisation process with the “one-step process” of the issuance of an apostille.

The Apostille Convention entered into force for Singapore on 16 September 2021. From that date onward, documents issued in Singapore intended to be used in Brazil must bear an Apostille Certificate issued by the Singapore Academy of Law and need not be submitted to the Embassy for any further legalisation.

• In Brazil, apostille certificates are issued by authorized pubic notaries ("cartórios").
• In Singapore, the certificates are issued by the Singapore Academy of Law.

For further details, please refer to this announcement by Singapore's Ministry of Law and the legalisation FAQs by the Singapore Academy of Law.

Please note: the Embassy does not certify documents issued in Brazil. In order for a document issued in Brazil to be accepted by Singapore authorities, it must bear an Apostille Certificate issued by a Brazilian Public Notary ("Cartório").

For further questions, please write to visas.singapore@itamaraty.gov.br