Apostille and Document Legalisation for Bangladesh: What Changed on 30 March 2025, and What Still Needs the Embassy

In this guide: What an apostille is, and what it is not · Foreign documents coming into Bangladesh · Bangladeshi documents going abroad · Where the embassy is still needed · Common problems and how to avoid them · Cost and time, realistically

The short answer

If your document comes from, or is going to, a country in the Apostille Convention, get an apostille from that country’s competent authority and stop there: no Bangladesh embassy stamp is needed for a passport copy, a company’s incorporation certificate, a board resolution, a degree certificate, a marriage certificate or a court order. If the document is a private paper (a resolution, an affidavit, an agreement) it is first notarised or certified so that there is a public signature for the apostille to confirm. For a Bangladeshi document going abroad, the issuing authority or a notary signs it, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs apostilles it online, and the receiving country must accept it without its own embassy’s stamp. Three cautions. First, the Convention does not cover the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia and several other countries where Bangladeshis live and trade; for those the old chain (notary, Ministry, embassy) continues. Second, a power of attorney to be registered here is still, as a matter of practice, authenticated by the Bangladesh mission, because the Power of Attorney Rules 2015 say so and sub-registrars follow the Rules. Third, some RJSC, bank and Invest Bangladesh desks still ask for mission attestation out of habit; we carry the accession notification and have not yet failed to get an apostilled document accepted, but allow a few days for it. Our attestation and apostille service handles both directions.

What an apostille is, and what it is not

The 1961 Hague Convention replaces the chain of legalisation (notary, foreign ministry, consulate) with one certificate, the apostille, in a prescribed ten-field form, issued by an authority the document’s country has designated. The apostille confirms three things: that the signature on the document is genuine, that the signatory acted in the capacity stated, and that any seal or stamp is authentic. It confirms nothing about the content: an apostilled affidavit is an affidavit that was really sworn before that notary, not an affidavit whose statements are true, and a Bangladeshi authority remains free to question the content, demand a translation, or apply its own rules on what the document proves. Article 1 covers public documents: documents emanating from a court or tribunal, administrative documents, notarial acts, and official certificates placed on private documents (a notary’s attestation of a signature, a registration endorsement, a certified copy). It excludes documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents and administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations, so a certificate of origin or a customs invoice is still legalised the old way where the receiving country insists. A private document becomes eligible by acquiring an official certificate: the board resolution is notarised, and the notary’s certificate is what the apostille authenticates. For a Bangladeshi court, s.78 and ss.82 to 86 of the Evidence Act 1872 govern the proof of foreign public documents, and an apostille now satisfies the authentication the court looks for from a Convention state.

Foreign documents coming into Bangladesh

The apostille is normally a paper certificate attached to the document, increasingly an electronic one with a verification code; Bangladeshi desks accept both but still prefer to see a wet-ink original with the apostille physically attached, so bring the paper. Where a desk insists on mission attestation despite the apostille, the position is that Bangladesh, by acceding, undertook under Article 2 to exempt documents from Convention states from legalisation; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has published the accession, and a short note to that effect usually resolves it. Documents from non-Convention countries follow the old chain: notary or issuing authority, that country’s foreign ministry, the Bangladesh mission there (or, where there is none, a mission accredited to that country), and on arrival the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka if the receiving authority asks for it.

Bangladeshi documents going abroad

1. Get the document into apostillable form. A public document (a court order, an RJSC certificate, a birth or marriage certificate from the registrar, an educational certificate from the board or university) already carries an official signature. A private document (an affidavit, a power of attorney, a company resolution, a contract) is signed before a notary public, whose certificate is what the Ministry will apostille. Educational certificates may need the issuing board’s or the Ministry of Education’s verification first, as before.
2. Apply to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through its online attestation and apostille system: upload the document, pay the government fee, and attend or courier the original to the Consular wing for the certificate. The Ministry verifies the signature against its specimen records, which is why a notary or officer whose signature is not registered with the Ministry causes delay; we use notaries whose specimens are on file.
3. Translation: if the receiving country does not work in English, have a certified translation made and apostilled with the original, or made in the receiving country by a sworn translator.
4. Receiving country: a Convention state must accept the apostilled document without legalisation by its own consulate; its internal rules on translations, validity periods (many registries want civil-status certificates less than six months old) and certified copies still apply.

Typical turnaround at the Ministry is a few working days for a document with a recognised signature; budget a week with courier time. For NRBs executing documents from abroad to use in Bangladesh, the direction is reversed and the issuing country’s authority apostilles: the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in the UK, the Secretary of State of the state where the notary is commissioned in the United States, the Ministry of External Affairs (through its outsourced centres) in India, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Australia, and so on; a list of competent authorities is on the Hague Conference website, and our power of attorney from abroad page explains the route for that document in particular.

Where the embassy is still needed

• Non-Convention countries. Among the countries that matter most to Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan are not parties as at our last check of the Hague status table (Vietnam became a party on 11 September 2026, and Thailand’s accession takes effect on 28 February 2027); documents to and from them go through the chain of legalisation. Saudi Arabia (2022), Singapore (2021), China (2023), Pakistan (2023), Indonesia (2022) and Canada (2024) are parties, as are the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Japan, Korea, Australia and all of the European Union, though eleven EU states objected to Bangladesh’s accession and the Convention does not operate between them and Bangladesh (next section). Check the status table before relying on a country, because accessions continue.
• The twelve states that objected. The Convention allows an existing member to object to a new accession, in which case the Convention does not apply between those two states. Twelve states objected to Bangladesh’s accession: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Austria, Greece, Czechia, Estonia, Lithuania and Argentina. The Convention does not apply between Bangladesh and any of them, so documents to or from those countries still go through the chain of legalisation, Bangladesh mission included. The objections stand as at our last check of the Hague status table; we confirm the position for the specific country on each instruction.
• Powers of attorney to be registered in Bangladesh. The Power of Attorney Act 2012 and the Rules of 2015 provide for a power executed abroad to be authenticated by the Bangladesh mission and then stamped and registered here within the prescribed period. The Rules have not been amended to mention apostilles, and sub-registrars follow the Rules. Until they are, we advise mission authentication for any power of attorney that will be presented for registration or used to sell, mortgage or register land, whatever the Convention says; an apostille is accepted for a power used only before a company registrar or a bank, but even there the mission route is the safer one for now.
• Commercial and customs documents. Outside Article 1; chambers of commerce and consulates continue to legalise certificates of origin and the like where the importing country requires it.

Common problems and how to avoid them

Apostille on the wrong thing. An apostille certifies the signature in front of it; an apostille on a notary’s certificate that merely says “a true copy” is accepted for a passport copy, but an apostille placed on a photocopy with no notarial act is worthless. Ask the notary to certify the copy as a true copy of the original seen, and have the apostille attached to that certificate. Signature not on file. Both the Ministry here and authorities abroad verify against specimen signatures; a retired notary or a newly appointed registrar causes rejection, so use established notaries. Stale documents. An apostille does not expire, but the receiving authority may want the underlying certificate recent; company good-standing certificates and civil-status extracts are usually asked for within three to six months. Language. The apostille itself may be in the issuing country’s language; the ten standard fields are recognisable, but the document underneath still needs a certified translation into English or Bangla for a Bangladeshi authority. Desks that have not caught up. The published checklists of the RJSC and of Invest Bangladesh (the former BIDA pages) still read “attested by the Bangladesh mission or an apex chamber”; the law has moved and the desks are moving, and a polite reference to the accession, with a printout of the Ministry’s notification, has so far been enough.

Cost and time, realistically

Government fees are small on both sides: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs charges a nominal per-document fee for an apostille, and foreign authorities charge in the range of a few pounds, dollars or euros per certificate (the UK Foreign Office standard service, a US Secretary of State, India’s MEA centres). The real cost is in notarisation, certified translation and courier, and in the time: a few working days at the Ministry in Dhaka, one to two weeks abroad depending on the authority and whether a postal service is used, plus courier each way. For a company registration with three foreign shareholders in three countries, start the apostilles the day the structure is agreed, because they arrive last. We quote per document for the Bangladesh side and coordinate the foreign side with correspondent notaries where the client has no one on the ground.