Apostille and legalisation service

Do you need an apostille at all?

An apostille is a certificate attached by a state authority confirming that the signature, seal or stamp on a public document is genuine. It says nothing about the content and nothing about the translation. The UK and Türkiye are both parties to the 1961 Hague Convention, so an apostille is the only legalisation step between them; no consulate or embassy stamp is added on top.

Most UK bodies do not ask for an apostille on Turkish documents. UKVI, HM Passport Office, UK ENIC and the GMC accept a certified translation of the document as issued. Turkish authorities, on the other hand, almost always want UK documents apostilled before they will look at the translation: YÖK, the nüfus offices, tapu offices, trade registries and the courts all reject translations of un-apostilled UK documents. Our decision guide walks through the common cases.

Turkish documents coming to the UK

Where a UK body does ask (some courts, probate registries, banks and universities do), the apostille is issued in Türkiye free of charge by the district governor’s office (kaymakamlık) or the provincial governor’s office (valilik) for administrative documents, and by the courthouse justice commission for judicial documents. We obtain apostilles in Ankara for a £15 service fee per document, usually within 1–3 working days, and then translate the document and the apostille together.

Many Turkish documents can now be apostilled online through e-Devlet without our help: criminal record certificates (adli sicil kaydı), court decisions, civil registry extracts (nüfus kayıt örneği) and, since December 2023, the multilingual birth, marriage and death extracts. The e-Apostil PDF carries a verification code that a UK reader can check. We translate e-Apostil documents in the same way as paper ones. See Turkish e-Apostil.

UK documents going to Türkiye

UK public documents are apostilled by the FCDO Legalisation Office. The standard paper service costs £45 per document and can take up to 25 working days plus post; the e-Apostille costs £35 and is usually issued within 2 working days, but it is not available for GRO certificates, ACRO certificates, DBS certificates or fingerprint certificates. Documents that do not carry the signature of a public officer, such as a private letter or a copy, must first be certified by a UK notary or solicitor.

We cannot obtain FCDO apostilles from Ankara. You can apply yourself on GOV.UK, or we can place the order with a UK legalisation partner and pass the FCDO fee through plus a £20 handling fee. Either way, the sequence matters: apostille first, then translation, because the Turkish reader expects the apostille to be translated as part of the document. Once the apostilled document reaches us, we produce a notarised translation in Ankara that Turkish authorities accept.

Apostille on a translation

Translations can only be apostilled once they have become a notarial act. In Türkiye that means a notarised translation, which we apostille at the Ankara kaymakamlık for £15; that is the route we use when a third country, or a cautious UK body, wants both the document and the translation legalised. In the UK a translation can only be apostilled after a UK notary or solicitor has certified it, which we cannot arrange from Ankara.

Prices and timing

• Apostille in Ankara: £15 per document, 1–3 working days, no state fee.
• FCDO apostille via a UK partner: £45 + £20 handling (paper) or £35 + £20 (e-Apostille), FCDO processing times as above.
• Translation of an apostille certificate: counted as part of the document’s page count.
• Courier to the UK: £30. No UK VAT is charged.

What we need from you

The original or a clear scan, the name of the receiving body and the country of use. If the document is a UK certificate, tell us whether you already hold an apostille; if not, we will tell you whether e-Apostille is possible for that document type before you pay for the slower paper route.