| Competent authority | B.C. Authentication Program, Order in Council Administration Office, Ministry of Attorney General |
| Government fee | $20 per document |
| Typical processing | ≈ 2–4 weeks |
| Submission | Mail or courier only |
What to know
- B.C. has the longest provincial queue in the country (2–4 weeks). If your timeline is tight, the pre-check is where we look at lawful faster routings, for example whether a freshly issued document or a notarized copy in another jurisdiction would be accepted by your destination.
- Send original documents with a prepaid return envelope or waybill; we prepare the complete package.
- Vital statistics certificates must be current originals from the B.C. Vital Statistics Agency, we can order replacements on your behalf.
Doing it yourself: what the authority asks for
Everything below is published by the authority itself. We keep it here, up to date, because you are entitled to know exactly what it would take to skip us.
- Authority
- B.C. Authentication Program, Order in Council Administration Office, Ministry of Attorney General (Victoria)
Documents issued in British Columbia, and documents signed by a B.C. notary public or lawyer - Form
- B.C. Document Authentication Request (online, pay.gov.bc.ca)
- Send to
- Ministry of Attorney General, OIC Administration Office
Attention: BC Authentication Program
1001 Douglas Street
Victoria BC V8W 2C5 - Fee
- $20 per document
- Payment
- Online by Mastercard, Visa, American Express or debit card, or by money order, bank draft or cheque payable to the Minister of Finance.
- Return
- Single return envelope per request; courier return available if you follow the Return Mail Service instructions and prepay it.
- Counter
- None. Mail or courier only, no rush service.
- Processing
- 2 to 4 weeks, not including mail time
Published by the Authentication Program, updated February 5, 2026. At full capacity the office aims for 14 business days. - Before
- Vital statistics certificates must be current originals from the B.C. Vital Statistics Agency. Private documents are notarized by a B.C. notary public or lawyer first.
Does your document need a notary first?
This is the question that decides your cost and your timeline. Get it wrong and the submission comes back weeks later, unprocessed.
Goes straight to the authority
Public documents already carry an official signature the authority can verify. No notary, no extra fee, no extra weeks.
- Birth, marriage and death certificates from the BC Vital Statistics Agency
- Diplomas and transcripts from BC public post-secondary institutions
- BC court documents and orders
- Corporate records from BC Registries
Needs notarization first
Private documents carry no official signature, so a notary certifies the signer first and the apostille goes on that certification.
- Medical certificates and physician letters
- Powers of attorney, affidavits, statutory declarations
- Certified copies of passports and identity documents
- Private agreements and company resolutions
The British Columbia rejections we see most
- Photocopies that were never certified by a BC notary or lawyer
- Laminated certificates — irreversible, and refused on sight
- Documents notarized outside British Columbia, which belong to that other province’s authority
Two rules hold everywhere: never laminate a document, and never remove a staple from a multi-page one. Both are irreversible, and both are refused on sight. If you need a copy, photograph it flat.
Not in British Columbia? It changes nothing.
The authority is decided by where the document was issued or notarized — never by where you live. People send us documents from Vancouver, Dubai and São Paulo, and the routing is identical.
- We prepare the request, pay the fee and submit on your behalf
- Nothing travels by ordinary mail — a prepaid tracked return envelope goes with every submission
- A PDF scan reaches you the day the document returns to us
- Originals ship anywhere in the world, tracked
Don’t have the document yet? We can order it from the issuing office on your behalf — see document retrieval from abroad.
Fixed written quote before anything moves.
Documents from different provinces travel separately
A common file — a birth certificate from one province, a degree from another, an RCMP check from Ottawa — is three submissions to three authorities, on three different timelines. They do not share a queue and they do not come back together. We run them in parallel so nothing waits on anything else.
Other authorities: Québec · Ontario · Alberta · Saskatchewan · Federal & other provinces
How much does an apostille cost for British Columbia documents?
How long does an apostille take for British Columbia documents?
Who issues apostilles for British Columbia documents?
How are documents submitted to this authority?
Have a British Columbia document?
Upload a scan, we'll confirm the routing, screen it for refusal risks and send a fixed quote within one business day.
Free pre-check