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25 July 2019

Philippines implements the Apostille Convention to eliminate authentication of foreign documents

The Philippines has acceded to the Apostille Convention pursuant to The Hague Convention dated 5 October 1961 to abolish the foreign document legalization requirements; accordingly, the Philippines will no longer require authentication of documents by the Philippine Embassy or Consulates General before these can be valid in the Philippines. The convention has 117 parties.

This Alert summarizes the key provisions of this development.

United States (US) documents

Public documents issued by the US Government are no longer required to undergo an authentication process by the Philippine Embassy or Philippine Consulate General to be valid and accepted in the Philippines.

Authenticated documents (apostilled documents) by the Secretary of States (for the US) no longer need to be authenticated by the Philippine Embassy or Consulate General and can be directly used for transactions in the Philippines, including presentation or submission to various Philippine government agencies.

The Apostille Convention is retroactively effective for all documents issued on or after 14 May 2019.

For additional information with respect to this Alert, please contact the following:

Ernst & Young Philippines (SGV & Co.), Makati City
  • Fabian Delos Santos | fabian.k.delos.santos@ph.ey.com
  • Fidela Isip-Reyes | fidela.t.isip-reyes@ph.ey.com
Ernst & Young LLP (United States), Philippine Tax Desk, New York
  • Betheena Dizon | betheena.c.dizon1@ey.com
Ernst & Young LLP (United States), Asia Pacific Business Group, New York
  • Chris Finnerty | chris.finnerty1@ey.com
  • Kaz Parsch | kazuyo.parsch@ey.com
  • Bee-Khun Yap | bee-khun.yap@ey.com

ATTACHMENT

Document ID: 2019-5932

 
 

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