Canada has built half of the electronic apostille
The Hague e-APP has two halves: electronic issuance, and an electronic register that lets a foreign official confirm an apostille is real. Canada has implemented the second half only.
The electronic register
Global Affairs Canada runs an online tool that confirms whether an apostille is valid. Ontario runs its own. A receiving official abroad can check a certificate without contacting anyone.
Electronic issuance
No Canadian competent authority signs and returns an apostille as a digital file. Global Affairs Canada accepts submissions by mail only. Every Canadian apostille is still paper, attached to paper.
That matters commercially, because it means nobody in this market can deliver a genuinely electronic apostille, whatever the wording on their pricing page. What can be made electronic is everything around it: how the document reaches Canada, how it is prepared, and how it is verified afterwards. That is the part worth paying for, and it is the part we do.
Does your document qualify, and how does it travel?
Most documents people want apostilled electronically are now issued as a PDF with a digital signature. That is exactly the case the authorities have no mechanism for. Pick your document and see the actual route.
Document route finder
Select a document type. Nothing is sent anywhere, this runs entirely in your browser.
Pick a document above and this panel will show how it is issued, whether it can be apostilled as it stands, and which authority ends up signing.
How a born-digital document becomes an apostilled one
There is no trick here, and no private channel. This is the route the provinces themselves describe. Ontario's guidance states it directly: where a document exists only as a PDF, it must be printed and certified before an apostille can be issued.
You send the file
The digital original, exactly as the issuer released it, plus the destination country. Nothing physical leaves your hands, and nothing leaves your country.
We check it is apostillable
Not every digital document qualifies. Some carry a signature that cannot be certified against, some are refused outright, and some need to be reissued in a different form. This is the free pre-check, and it is where a wasted file gets caught.
A Canadian notary certifies the copy
The document is printed and certified as a true copy of the electronic original. The notary's signature is the thing the apostille authority can actually verify. Where the file needs your signature rather than only certification, a Canadian notary can receive you by videoconference.
The apostille is issued and shipped
To the competent authority for the province where the certification took place, then one tracked international shipment to you, plus a PDF scan the day it is ready.
What "e-apostille" usually means on a Canadian website
| The claim | What is actually happening | Legitimate? |
|---|---|---|
| "Submit your apostille online" | Digital intake form. The document still travels on paper and the apostille is still issued on paper. | Yes, if the wording is honest about it |
| "We apostille digital documents" | The certified true copy route described above. This is the real mechanism and it works. | Yes |
| "Receive your e-apostille by email" | A scan of the finished paper apostille, often with a link to the government verification tool. Useful, but it is a copy, not a certificate. | Yes, as long as you also get the paper |
| "Electronic apostille issued digitally" | No Canadian authority does this. Either the wording is loose, or remote online notarization is being described as if it were the apostille itself. | Misleading |
We would rather tell you the register exists and issuance does not than let you discover it at a consulate counter. If a receiving authority abroad has told you it requires a digitally signed apostille file from Canada, that requirement cannot currently be met by anyone, and the conversation to have is with them, not with a vendor.
Can your apostille be verified online?
This is the part of the e-APP Canada did implement, and it is the closest thing to an "eApostille" that exists here. Coverage is uneven, and the authority that signs your document decides whether a foreign official can check it in a browser.
Verification coverage by authority
Select the authority that issued, or will issue, your apostille.
Select an authority to see whether its apostilles appear in an online register, and what the certificate number looks like.
The document never crosses a border twice
Nothing ships inbound
A born-digital document is emailed. There is no courier from your country to Canada, no customs, no week of transit, and no original at risk before the process even starts.
Signature without travel
Where the file needs to be signed rather than only certified, a Canadian notary can receive you by videoconference. You never fly, and you never look for a notary who understands Canadian requirements in a city that has none.
One outbound shipment
The finished apostille leaves Canada once, tracked, with a PDF scan sent the day it is ready so you can act before the paper lands.
This is also why the routing question matters more for digital files than for paper ones. The apostille comes from the province where the certification happens, which means the choice of certifying notary decides your fee, your processing time, and whether the result is verifiable online. Those are three different answers across the six Canadian authorities, and getting them lined up with what your destination expects is the work.
Where to go next
By document type
Fees, routing and refusal risks for each kind of Canadian document, digital or paper.
Apostille from abroad
The full remote process when you are outside Canada and have nobody here to act for you.
Who can apostille in Canada
The six competent authorities, what each one covers, and why a notary is never one of them.
Translation order
Why the translation comes after the apostille, and what that means for a digital file.
Document retrieval
When the record is still sitting with a Canadian registrar and you have nobody here to receive it.
Pricing
Our service fee, and government fees billed at cost with receipts.
Does Canada issue electronic apostilles?
So what are companies selling when they advertise an e-apostille?
Can a PDF be apostilled in Canada?
Which Canadian apostilles can be verified online?
Do I have to be in Canada for an eApostille?
Is the emailed scan enough for my destination?
Can you do this faster than the government?
Send the file. We will tell you if it works before you pay anything.
Upload the digital original and the destination country. You get the exact route, the authority that will sign, whether the result is verifiable online, and a fixed all-in quote, usually within one business day.