Apostille or Attestation?
It Depends Entirely on the Destination.
Not on the document, not on who issued it, and not on which service someone is trying to sell you. If the destination country is in the Hague Apostille Convention you need an apostille. If it is not, an apostille is legally meaningless there and you need embassy attestation instead.
Pick the Country. Get the Answer.
An apostille is only valid for Hague Convention countries — 130 of them as of 30 June 2026. Everywhere else needs embassy attestation instead, which is a different and longer process. Check before you order, not after.
130 Contracting Parties, verified against the HCCH status table on 30 June 2026. Status is calculated against today's date, so a country whose accession has not yet taken effect shows as pending until the day it does.
Status is calculated against today's date, not against whenever this page was last edited — so a country whose accession has not yet taken effect shows as pending until the day it does.
There Are Three Answers, Not Two
Most guides give you two — Hague or not. The third category is where documents quietly get rejected.
1 — Contracting Parties
130 countries. Apostille.
One MEA apostille sticker and the document is valid. No embassy, no consulate, no second step. As of30 June 2026 that list covers almost all of Europe and the Americas, plus Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, mainland China, Singapore and Canada.
2 — Not Contracting Parties
Embassy attestation. An apostille will be rejected.
These need the document attested by the MEA and then by the destination country's embassy or consulate in India — a longer and more expensive chain. We do not offer that service, and we say so rather than take the order.
3 — Acceded, but not yet in force
The trap almost nobody flags.
These countries have signed up, so they appear on "Hague member" lists — but the Convention is not in force there yet, and until it is, an apostille has no legal effect. Anyone listing them as apostille destinations today is telling you something that will get your documents refused. After the in-force date the answer flips, and the checker above handles that on the day without anyone editing this page.
The Gulf is not uniformly non-Hague — this is where most sites go wrong
Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia are Contracting Parties and do take an apostille:
The UAE, Qatar and Kuwait are not. Published guidance in this industry routinely lists all six together as "attestation countries" — three right and three wrong — and the error costs whoever acts on it either a wasted apostille or an unnecessary embassy chain.
What We Do, and What We Don't
We do this
- · MEA apostille of India-issued personal documents via the SDM route, for Hague destinations
- · US apostille of US-issued documents for use in India — the opposite direction, same company
We don't do this
- · Embassy or consular attestation for non-Hague destinations
- · Educational documents via State HRD, or commercial documents via a Chamber of Commerce — quoted on request only
If your destination is in the second category above, we are not the right people and we would rather tell you now. An apostille bought for the UAE is money spent on a document that gets handed back at the counter, and you would be right to be angry about it.
Where These Numbers Come From
130 Contracting Parties as of 30 June 2026, verified against theHCCH status tablefor Convention No. 12 — the treaty's own depositary, and the only authoritative source for this figure.
The count is asserted against our country data every time this site builds. If someone adds a country and forgets to update the number, the build fails rather than publishing a figure that has quietly drifted.
We are explicit about sourcing because the published figures in this industry disagree with each other and with HCCH. Counts of 105, 106, 114, 117, 120 and 124 are all in circulation, one site publishes three different numbers across its own pages, and a widely-cited guide carrying a named author, editor and reviewer states India has been a signatory since 1961 — the Convention's own date, not India's, off by more than four decades. A wrong party count is not a trivial slip. It is the number that decides whether the service you are buying works at all.
Apostille vs Attestation — Common Questions
What is the difference between an apostille and attestation?
Is an apostille required for the UAE?
Is Saudi Arabia a Hague Convention country?
When did India join the Hague Apostille Convention?
What is the difference between an apostille and notarisation?
What is the difference between apostille and legalisation?
Can an embassy or consulate issue an apostille?
My destination has just joined the Convention. Can I apostille now?
Someone offered "MEA apostille" for my US-issued document. Is that legitimate?
What is e-Sanad, and is it the same as an apostille?
Still Not Sure Which
One You Need?
Tell us the document and the destination country. We will tell you which service applies — including when the answer is that we cannot help.
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