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Apostille for Québec documents

Documents issued in Québec, or notarized/signed by a Québec notary (Chambre des notaires) or lawyer (Barreau du Québec).

Competent authorityMinistère de la Justice du Québec (Apostille Office, Montréal)
Government fee$66.50 per document (indexed annually)
Typical processing≈ 10 business days + mail
SubmissionMail only, no in-person service

What to know

  • Request form is completed and paid online; a printed copy of the form and payment receipt must accompany the documents.
  • Notarial acts and lawyer-signed documents require prior signature verification, by the Chambre des notaires for notaries (about 25 business days, or about 72 hours with their rush option) or by the Barreau du Québec for lawyers (about 5 business days). We manage this step for you.
  • Laminated, glued, illegible or unsigned documents and card-format documents (e.g. driver's licences) are refused. We catch these in the free pre-check before any fee is paid.
  • Birth, marriage and death certificates must come from the Directeur de l'état civil. For foreign citizenship applications, the long-form certificate (with parents' names) is usually required, a very common rejection we screen for.
  • Return is by regular mail unless a prepaid courier label and an unfolded envelope (min. 8.5 × 11 in.) are included, we always include one.
Verified September 2026 against the authority's published requirements; re-confirmed for every order at pre-check. Government fees and delays are outside any provider's control, including ours.
In Greater Montréal? We collect at your address and file at the Chambre des notaires in person the same day. See apostille in Montréal with same-day pickup.
The official route

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
Ministère de la Justice du Québec, Délivrance des apostilles (Montréal)
Documents issued in Québec, and documents signed by a Québec notary or lawyer
Form
Online apostille request (apostille.justice.gouv.qc.ca)
Send to
Délivrance des apostilles
276, rue Saint-Jacques, bureau 301
Montréal (Québec) H2Y 1N3
Fee
$66.50 per document (indexed every January)
Payment
Credit card online, or money order / bank draft payable to the Fonds des registres du ministère de la Justice. Personal cheques are refused.
Return
Regular mail by default. For a tracked return, include a prepaid envelope large enough (minimum 8.5 × 11 in.) that the documents are not folded.
Counter
None. Mail or courier only, no rush service.
Processing
About 10 business days at the office, plus mail
On September 16, 2026 the Ministère was processing applications received on September 2, 2026.
Before
A notarial act must first receive an authenticity certificate from the Chambre des notaires du Québec (about 20 business days, or about 72 hours with their urgent service). A document signed by a Québec lawyer goes through the Barreau du Québec first (about 5 business days).
Official page: www.quebec.ca/en/justice-and-civil-status/services/a Checked September 19, 2026
Before you send anything

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.

  • Civil status records from the Directeur de l’état civil — the copie d’acte, long form, not the small-format certificat
  • Diplomas and transcripts from Québec public universities and CEGEPs
  • Court documents issued by a Québec court
  • Corporate records from the Registraire des entreprises

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 any letter signed by a physician
  • Powers of attorney, sworn declarations, affidavits
  • Certified true copies of passports and diplomas from outside Québec
  • Private contracts and company resolutions
Québec adds a step nobody expects. A document signed before a Québec notaire needs an authenticity certificate from the Chambre des notaires du Québec before the Ministère will apostille it — roughly 20 business days, or about 72 hours on the urgent service. A document signed before a Québec lawyer goes through the Barreau du Québec instead. Budget for this. It is the single most common reason a Québec file takes longer than people plan for.
What gets refused

The Québec rejections we see most

  • The small-format certificat instead of the copie d’acte — the most common Québec rejection by far
  • A commissioner for oaths instead of a notary — the Ministère holds no signature specimen for them
  • A notarial act sent without the Chambre des notaires certificate

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 Québec? 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.

Free pre-check

Fixed written quote before anything moves.

More than one province

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: Ontario · British Columbia · Alberta · Saskatchewan · Federal & other provinces

Common questions
How much does an apostille cost for Québec documents?
The government fee is: $66.50 per document (indexed annually). Viapostille bills government fees at cost, separately from its published service fee.
How long does an apostille take for Québec documents?
Current processing time: ≈ 10 business days + mail.
Who issues apostilles for Québec documents?
Ministère de la Justice du Québec (Apostille Office, Montréal). This authority covers: Documents issued in Québec, or notarized/signed by a Québec notary (Chambre des notaires) or lawyer (Barreau du Québec)
How are documents submitted to this authority?
Mail only, no in-person service. Viapostille prepares the request and shipping so submission is handled entirely remotely.

Have a Québec 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