1. A regional overview
Europe is the region where the Convention is most complete and where the apostille is the default route.
2. The parties
All EU member states except Ireland, which has separate arrangements.
The United Kingdom.
Switzerland, Norway, Iceland.
The Balkan states.
Russia is not a party.
3. The category that requires care
Commercial documents
As elsewhere, the invoice must be notarised before it can be apostilled.
4. The language
The destination language, notarised with the document.
English is accepted by some registries and not others.
5. The exceptions worth noting
Ireland operates its own consular legalisation for documents from China.
6. The post-Brexit position
The UK acceded to the Convention independently, and apostilles continue to work for UK-bound documents.
7. A scenario
An exporter preparing documents for an Irish subsidiary assumed the EU route applied.
Ireland’s arrangement required consular legalisation instead of an apostille.
8. The check
Confirm per country, not per region, and confirm per document type.
9. Closing view
Europe is the easiest region for authentication overall, and the exceptions are country-specific and small.
They are still enough to delay a filing.
*This article is based on the Apostille Convention status table, updated October 2026.*