Anyone know if I can, and where, get a document in apostilled in TW? Quick google search seems to be something about Taiwan not being a member of The Hague convention, so I wonder could it be that this cannot be done in tw?
If I cannot do it in taiwan, how do people in taiwan usually get their documents apostilled ?
The document in question needs to be both notarised and apostilled
Most countries in Asia are not part of that convention. Procedure I would follow:
(1) Do you really really really need an apostille? (Edit: ask the Taiwan rep office in that country)
(2) If 100% yes: https://www.boca.gov.tw/cp-208-458-e8b39-2.html
What you really need is to legalize Taiwanese document.
Ask embassy of your country in Taiwan for a list of approved notaries. Usually in the local district court.
Bring the notarized document to embassy to get it legalized. Now it can be legally used in your home country.
You should have mentioned it is for China. The way I described works for most countries. Like @ma3xiu1 said Taiwan is not a member of the Hague Apostille. So you can not do it specifically that way.
For China there are other ways, but I don’t know about that.
Just get the apostille from the country the document is from.
I am also asked a document with apostille, so looks like (according to the replies on this thread) that it is not possible in Taiwan. No big deal then I guess, will still give the embassy of Kaohsiung a call to see what they say.
I need to provide to my home country (Greece) a document certifying that our son is attending a kindergarten in Taiwan. This document will need to have an apostille stamp.
Our son is attending a private one in Kaohsiung.
If I get a certificate of attendance from the private kindergarten, is there a what to have it certified form a local authority and then go to HK to have it authorized there as well (that’s what i did many years ago for our marriage documents)? Also,
Do local certified notaries stamp documents from private entities?
Pre-school education is not mandatory in Taiwan, but do you think that the Ministry of Education or any Affairs documents enrollments so that we could get directly a enrollment certification from a Ministry?
As we may travel to Japan, is it possible to authorize the Taiwanese documents to the local Taiwanese office there, get a Japanese stamp and then a stamp from the Greek embassy in Japan?
TW doesn’t participate to apostille, you can get the document attesting your son attending the kindergarten first notarized by a public notary here, then certified at the BOCA then legalized at the TECO in Greece, then most likely certified by the equivalent of the BOCA in Greece, that way it will have full legal value also in Greece
The apostille process is a convenience, not a requirement. So, since Taiwan did not sign the Treaty of the Hague that established apostilles given by each signatory state as recognizable by other signatories, then for documents in Taiwan that need to be notarized, we simply continue to use the process for notarizing and authenticating documents.
This is why we would authenticate and/or notarize at TECO and BOCA as before. So you need to check the embassies (or equivalents) of the country where the document is needed for guidance. The objective of the apostille system is to replace the ad hoc and subjective notarization/authentication methods of yore.
In my experience, it has not worked well – over the past few years, I’ve needed to get documents apostilled in the US from relatives in various states (NOTE: not for use in Taiwan, obviously, since Taiwan is not a Hague treaty signatory). In the US, apostilles are issued at the state level, not federal, so there are a variety of costs and times involved across different states. Throw in COVID delays back when I was doing this and seeking state apostillizations were a major hassle – no savings of time, money, or effort.
Thank you Mataiou. I will follow the steps you suggest for the Taiwan part. However, Greece does not recognize (at least for civilian purposes) Greek TECO’s certifications. Any Taiwanese document to be issued to Greek authorities should have an apostille stamp.
Perhaps the public notary will be able to guide us, as well as I will contact the Greek embassies in HK and Tokyo to ask for guidelines.
I think that you can get it through by a re-legalisation at the ministry of foreign affairs in Greece (dunno how exactly is the standing of TECO in Greece, but in Italy you can make legal a document legalised by the TECO in Rome/Milan if then legalised/certified/assevered by either the Prefecture or the tribunal competent for the issue place).
Best bet would be with the consulate in HK, they should be more used to TW documents than JP.