Apostille in Ottawa: the federal office is here, and most Ottawa documents can’t use it
Ottawa is the only city with Global Affairs Canada’s Authentication Services Section, at 2421 Lancaster Road, and it even takes drop-offs. The catch is jurisdiction. GAC apostilles federal documents and documents from provinces without their own authority. An Ottawa birth certificate, a University of Ottawa degree or an Ottawa notary’s signature is an Ontario document and goes to Toronto. Anything from Gatineau is a Québec document and goes to Montréal. Capital-region files split three ways more often than anywhere else in the country.
Which office your document belongs to, and why the answer is rarely “the one downtown”
Route 1: Global Affairs Canada
Federal documents only, plus documents from Manitoba, the Atlantic provinces and the territories. In Ottawa that means RCMP certified criminal record checks, Canadian citizenship certificates and other IRCC documents, Corporations Canada records, Health Canada certificates, and documents issued by federal departments. Free, no expedited service, and the queue is the longest in the country: about 25 business days at last check.
Route 2: Official Documents Services, Toronto
Every Ontario document, wherever in Ontario it was issued. Birth, marriage and death certificates from ServiceOntario; divorce documents from the Ottawa Courthouse at 161 Elgin Street; degrees and transcripts from the University of Ottawa, Carleton, Algonquin, La Cité and Saint Paul University; anything signed before an Ottawa notary public. GAC will not touch these and returns them unprocessed.
Route 3: Ministère de la Justice, Montréal
Every Québec document, which in the capital region means Gatineau, Aylmer, Hull, Chelsea and the Outaouais. Directeur de l’état civil certificates, UQO diplomas, Palais de justice de Gatineau documents, and anything signed before a Québec notary, which first needs a Chambre des notaires authenticity certificate. $66.50 per document, by mail only.
Using Global Affairs Canada yourself
Everything below is what GAC publishes. Submit the online request first, then bring or send the originals. The drop-off at the Lancaster Road distribution centre saves the inbound mail leg, but nothing else: the file enters the same queue as a mailed one.
Doing it yourself: what the authority asks for
- Authority
- Global Affairs Canada, Authentication Services Section (Ottawa)
Federal documents (RCMP checks, federal corporations, Health Canada, IRCC) and documents from Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut - Form
- Online request on the GAC apostille portal (apostille-gac.powerappsportals.com)
- Send to
- Global Affairs Canada
Authentication Services Section
2421 Lancaster Road
Ottawa ON K1B 4L5 - Fee
- No government fee
- Payment
- None. The federal service is free.
- Return
- Include a self-addressed stamped envelope, or a prepaid courier label or envelope. Waybills billed to an account number are refused. Without one, documents come back by untracked regular mail.
- Counter
- Drop-off Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., except statutory holidays
- Processing
- About 25 business days, plus 5 to 10 business days of mail each way
On August 26, 2026 GAC reported it was processing requests received 25 business days earlier (90% of recent files). - Before
- GAC does not process documents issued in Québec, Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta or Saskatchewan. Those go to their own provincial authority.
Do it yourself, or send it to us?
Do it yourself when
- You have one federal document, such as an RCMP check, you are in Ottawa on a weekday, and you can drop it at Lancaster Road with a prepaid tracked return envelope. Your only cost is the envelope, and you save the inbound mail leg.
- You have one Ontario public document and a few weeks of margin to mail it to Toronto, or a reason to be in Toronto for the same-day counter.
- Your destination is a Convention member, so the apostille is the last step.
- You will carry the apostilled original abroad yourself.
Send it to us when
- Your file splits across two or three offices. Ottawa plus Toronto plus Montréal is the normal shape of a capital-region file, and running them in parallel is the difference between six weeks and twelve.
- Your document is private and needs a notary first. An Ottawa notary makes it an Ontario document (Toronto); a Gatineau notary makes it a Québec document (Chambre des notaires, then Montréal). We coordinate the right one.
- The destination is not a Convention member. Lebanon, Haiti, Egypt and Iran are frequent Ottawa cases. After authentication, the document needs legalization at that country’s embassy, which is here in Ottawa, with its own fees, forms and hours. We handle the full chain.
- You are posted abroad and the document is in Ottawa with family or a lawyer. We collect it from them and ship the finished set to you by tracked courier, to the address your posting allows.
- You want a written all-in price first, a PDF scan the day each document is back, and one accountable contact across three offices.
Our service fee is published: $139 for the first document, $29 for each additional one in the same submission, $79 per additional authority, never more than $299 per submission. Government fees are billed at the exact dollar with the receipt; GAC’s is zero.
Same postal code, three authorities
| Document | Typical Ottawa-region issuer | Authority | Notary first? |
|---|---|---|---|
| RCMP certified criminal record check | RCMP, via an accredited fingerprinting company | Global Affairs Canada, Ottawa | No |
| Canadian citizenship certificate, IRCC documents | Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada | Global Affairs Canada, Ottawa | Usually no |
| Federal corporate documents | Corporations Canada | Global Affairs Canada, Ottawa | Usually no |
| Health Canada export certificates, federal licences | Federal departments and agencies | Global Affairs Canada, Ottawa | No |
| Birth, marriage, death certificate (Ontario) | ServiceOntario (Office of the Registrar General) | ODS, Toronto | No |
| Divorce certificate or order (Ontario) | Superior Court of Justice, Ottawa Courthouse, 161 Elgin Street | ODS, Toronto | No, if issued since January 2002 |
| Degree, diploma, transcript (Ontario) | University of Ottawa, Carleton, Algonquin, La Cité, Saint Paul | ODS, Toronto | No, if public and issued since January 2019 |
| Power of attorney, affidavit, consent letter (Ottawa notary) | Signed before an Ontario notary public | ODS, Toronto | Yes, that is what makes it apostillable |
| Birth, marriage, death certificate (Gatineau) | Directeur de l’état civil du Québec, long-form copie d’acte | Ministère de la Justice, Montréal | No |
| Degree (Gatineau) | Université du Québec en Outaouais, Cégep de l’Outaouais | Ministère de la Justice, Montréal | No |
| Notarial act (Gatineau notary) | Signed before a Québec notaire | Chambre des notaires certificate, then Ministère de la Justice, Montréal | Yes, plus the Chambre step |
Common destinations from the capital region
Apostille is enough
France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, India, the Philippines, China, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria (a member since July 9, 2026), Colombia, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States are all Convention members. Once the right office attaches the apostille, the document is ready. Many also want a certified translation, coordinated before or after as the receiving country requires.
Legalization still required, and the embassy is here
Lebanon, Haiti, Egypt, Iran and a number of other states are not members. After authentication, the document is legalized by that country’s embassy or consulate, and almost every one of them sits in Ottawa. That makes the capital the one city where the second step is local, but each embassy has its own form, fee, hours and sometimes a translation requirement. See our country pages.
Special cases we see from Ottawa
Foreign postings for public servants and Forces members (criminal record check plus degree plus marriage certificate, three offices). Dual-national files for Lebanese and Haitian families (legalization chains). Cross-border Gatineau-Ottawa couples whose documents are half Québec, half Ontario. Each has its own guide.
Where we serve, and what that means here
We are based in Laval, near Montréal, two hours from Ottawa by road. We handle capital-region files by tracked courier: we issue the inbound label, inspect the originals against the pre-check, and dispatch each document to its office: GAC by courier to Lancaster Road, ODS by courier to Toronto, the Ministère de la Justice from Montréal after any Chambre des notaires step. Each document returns to us by prepaid tracked envelope, and the finished set goes to any address in the world.
For embassy legalization after authentication, we handle the embassy submission in Ottawa with its forms and fees, quoted upfront. If you only need one piece of this, any step can be ordered on its own.
Clients come to us from across the region: Ottawa (Centretown, the Glebe, Westboro, Nepean, Kanata, Barrhaven, Orléans, Vanier, Gloucester), and from the Québec side, Gatineau, Hull, Aylmer, Chelsea and Cantley, plus Kanata, Stittsville, Rockland, Kemptville, Arnprior and Cornwall. Bilingual by default, as the region is.
Can I get an apostille at Global Affairs Canada in Ottawa?
Where does an Ottawa birth certificate get apostilled?
How much does an apostille cost in Ottawa?
How long does Global Affairs Canada take?
My document is going to Lebanon or Haiti. Is the embassy step in Ottawa?
I live in Gatineau. Is my file a Québec file or an Ontario file?
Do you have an office in Ottawa?
Send us the list, we will tell you which of the three offices each document belongs to
Scans of your documents, the destination country and your deadline. We confirm the routing for each one, flag anything that would be refused, and give you a fixed all-in price in writing, including any embassy step. Free, and if your case is a single RCMP check you can drop off yourself, we will say so.
Free pre-check