General information

An Apostille (or legalisation) is a confirmation that a signature and stamp are genuine and a certification that the signatory is entitled to sign that document. A legalisation does not verify the document’s content.

In order to legalise a physical document, the document must have a "wet" original signature from an official Danish authority, e.g. The Agency of Family Law, municipalities, parishes etc. 

Denmark is a member of the Hague Apostille Convention. Documents with an Apostille are valid in all countries that are members of the Apostille Convention. A list of the member countries of the Apostille Convention can be found here.

If your Danish issued documents are to be used in a country that has not acceded to the Apostille Convention, it is often a requirement that they are further legalised by that country's representation in Denmark. If a country is not represented in Denmark, please contact the nearest relevant embassy. Please see here.

To obtain an Apostille on your document, you first need to request a legalisation of the document by using our legalisation webshop. The webshop allows you to order and pay for the Apostille. Once the purchase is completed, you will receive a receipt.

To have your document apostilled, you have three options:

1. You can submit your document and the receipt from the webshop in person during the Legalisation Office’s opening hours. The document will be legalised, while you wait. If you have more than seven documents to be legalised, we will have them processed and ready to be collected the following working day.
2. You can send the document by post. Please remember to enclose the receipt from the webshop. The document will be returned to you within 5-7 working days, counting from the day we receive the document. Be aware that the processing time during busy periods may be longer. An additional fee to cover postage charges can be paid, when ordering the Apostille on the webshop.
3. If the document is digitally signed, you can upload it in our webshop. Then you can either collect the document at our office or have the document returned to you by post. In some cases, documents are sent electronically but without a digital signature. Please be aware of this and remember to request the document with a digital signature from the relevant authority.

In order to verify, whether your document is digitally signed or not, please open the concerned document via your pdf-reader, if a blue bar appears on the top part of the document, it means that the document contains a digital signature.

Physical documents can only be legalised if they contain a physical/wet signature by an official Danish authority.

Documents that are issued by private individuals or private companies, such as powers of attorney and contracts, must first be legalised by notary public, before they can be legalised with an Apostille by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Based on an individual assessment of the document, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reserves the right to reject legalisation of a document if it cannot be ascertained that the document at hand is Danish, or there are other reasons to question, whether the document falls within the scope of the Apostille Convention

A physical/wet signature implies that the signature is original and manually signed by the employee of the issuing authority with a ballpoint pen. A scan, copy or printed specimen of the concerned document incl. signature is not sufficient.

A translated document must be certified by a Notary Public, The Danish Chamber of Commerce or The Confederation of Danish Industry prior to legalisation.

For further information regarding legalisation of translated documents, please see this page. 

Both the original document and the translation must be apostilled.

To verify the authenticity of an apostille or e-apostille issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, you can go to our E-register.

It is possible to verify Apostilles issued after the 15th of November 2017. In order to verify Apostilles issued before this date, please contact us via e-mail: [email protected]

Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 of the European Parliament and the Council on promoting the free movement of citizens simplifies the circulation of public documents between EU member states. The Regulation covers public documents such as birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates, certificates of partnership, adoption papers, certificates of residency and certificates on the absence of a criminal record. 

Certain documents are exempt from an Apostille, if they are presented to the authorities of another EU country.

Said documents are also exempt from translation, if they are presented with a multilingual standard form. The multilingual standard form is issued in connection with the issuance of the original public document, however only by specific request to the issuing authority. 

The following documents may be issued with a multilingual standard form: 

• Certificates of Residency
• Birth Certificates
• Certificates of Partnership
• Certificates of Personal data
• Absence of criminal records
• Certificates of Martial Status
• Marriage certificates

For more information regarding legalisation of public documents within the EU, please visit the European e-Justice-Portal. 

The Regulation of Legalisation (EU 2016/1191) can be consulted here.

Documents signed by private persons such as power of attorneys and contracts must be certified by a Notary Public or The Danish Chamber of Commerce prior to legalisation.

Documents signed by private companies must be certified by a The Danish Chamber of Commerce or The Confederation of Danish Industry prior to legalisation.