Words explained
Competent authority
In detail
More about this term
Each member country designates one or more competent authorities (Article 6 of the Convention) and tells the HCCH which ones they are. Some countries have one central office; others split the work by type of document or by region. The HCCH publishes the list for each country, and every country page on this site links to it.
Related
Related
Sources and verification
Sources
- Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (full text)
- Apostille Section
- Status
- Last verified: (18 October 2026)
- How it was checked
- Checked by our team against the sources above
- Next review
Every fact on this page links to the source it was taken from. Read how we check facts.