General Description
Countries that are part of the 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents require an apostille on public documents for them to be recognised as valid in a third country. An apostille is a form of ensuring that the signatures of government officials on documents are genuine.
Because Mexico and Australia are part of The Hague Convention, Australian documents that are intended to be valid in Mexico will need to be apostilled by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia. Similarly, documents issued in Mexico must be apostilled by the corresponding Mexican authorities for them to be valid in Australia.
The authority that can apostille an official document issued in Mexico will depend on the type of document:
- For federal documents (including university degrees from the National Autonomous University of Mexico UNAM and the Secretary of Public Education SEP), the apostille is issued by the Secretary of the Interior (Secretaría de Gobernación).
- For documents issued by state authorities, including birth and marriage certificates, the corresponding state government is in charge of processing the apostille.
More information, including the contact details of federal and state authorities, is available here: http://dicoppu.segob.gob.mx/es/DICOPPU/Apostille.
The apostille of Mexican documents cannot be processed through the Embassy.
If your documents were issued by a different country and you intend to use them in Mexico or for a process with the Embassy of Mexico (i.e. birth registration or visa request), you must check with the consular authorities of the issuing country whether the documents need to be legalised or apostilled. The apostille process varies from country to country. Some may be able to process the apostille through 2 their embassies in Australia, while others might require that the application is made within their country. Documents issued by countries that are not a part of the Hague Convention (apostille) will need to be legalised by the Embassy of Mexico in the issuing country.
Contact
Consular Section
Embassy of Mexico in Australia
