Ontario Apostille for Documents Used in Türkiye

Ontario documents are apostilled by Official Documents Services, known as ODS, in the provincial Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement. Ontario has widened the list of its own documents that can be authenticated without notarization, which makes many requests simpler than they used to be.

Documents that no longer need a notary

Vital statistics documents are on the list, polymer birth certificates included. So are business registry documents issued as of 1991 by the Business and Personal Property Branch or the Ontario Business Registry, which matters for a company registering a branch or signing contracts in Türkiye.

Court documents depend on their date. Documents of the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice issued as of 10 July 2023 qualify without notarization, while court-issued documents from before that date still have to be notarized. Education follows the same pattern: public post-secondary degrees, diplomas and transcripts issued since 1 January 2019 need no notary.

Where notarization is still required, an Ontario notary public does it. ODS has no in-house notary, so this step happens before the request. Documents notarized by an Ontario notary public remain eligible for authentication.

Ontario authenticates paper only. ODS works with a hard copy of the document; soft copy electronic documents, such as a PDF transcript, are not authenticated.

The request itself can be made online through the document authentication portal or with a paper service request form. The documents go by mail or in person to ODS or to select ServiceOntario locations.

The Turkish side

With the apostille, the document comes to Ankara, where translators sworn before a Turkish notary produce the Turkish version. If the receiving office wants the translation notarized, a Turkish notary does that, and the office decides whether the document is accepted.