Apostille Service Frequently Asked Questions

The images of NP’s seal and signature are still required and will be checked against the record kept by the Apostille Service Office (“ASO”).

NP may register his/her direct email address or the firm’s general mailbox with the ASO as long as the same email address is included in the digital certificate for digitally signing the document.

Amendment or withdrawal of application is not supported and any payments made for e-Apostille application are basically non-refundable. NP are reminded to ensure their documents are in order before submitting them. In case of questions regarding e-Apostille application, NP may contact ASO staff.

Similar to the processing time of paper Apostille, normally only two working days (excluding Saturdays) are required to process the applications.

For technical questions about the system, you may call the technical helpline. For other general questions about the apostille service, you may contact the ASO. The contact information can be found in the link below.

https://www.judiciary.hk/en/court_services_facilities/apostl_support.html

There is no procedure of processing urgent requests for e-Apostille or paper Apostille services.

An e-Apostilled document does not carry an expiry date. Long-Term Validation (LTV) is enabled for the checking the validity of the signature at the time the document was signed.

The presentation for paper apostille and e-Apostille is largely the same save that a paper apostille is sealed with a wet ink High Court stamp while an e-Apostille is sealed with a system-generated stamp.

For e-Apostille service, the applicant will receive a digitally signed PDF document containing the e-Apostille and the original underlying document.

Applicant will receive an acknowledgement (including therein transaction reference number and transaction date/time) right after each successful online payment.

The e-Apostille Service accepts documents in PDF format that are digitally signed by a NP using digital certificates issued by recognized certification authorities under the Electronic Transactions Ordinance (Cap. 553) (ETO) in Hong Kong. The types of digital certificates accepted for e-Apostille are “Personal” certificate and “Organizational” certificate issued by the two recognized certification authorities, which are Hongkong Post Certification Authority and Digi-Sign Certification Services Limited.

The common PDF editors provide the signing function using digital certificates. Please refer to the sample steps provided for Acrobat Reader and Foxit PDF Reader in the links below.

If document size is over 50MB, applicant can submit paper application at ASO of High Court Registry.

E-Apostille currently supports the uploading of document(s) in PDF format. Documents in other formats should be converted to PDF and digitally signed for submission via e-Apostille.

E-Apostille service supports the use of drag and drop feature in uploading files when the applicant uses a Windows PC running common browser software like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.

The information of credit card and web-based PPS Shop&Buy Service would be captured by the payment service provider. E-Apostille does not have access to any of your information of credit card and web-based PPS Shop&Buy Service.

Subject to arrangement of your card issuing bank, additional protection measures (such as input of a password sent to the card holder by SMS) might be in place. Please contact your card issuing bank for details.

A unique transaction reference number would be displayed on screen when the user is prompted for selection of a payment method. It is recommended that users should copy the reference number and call our technical helpline for assistance.

After a payment is made, e-Apostille service would return an Acknowledgement Page on screen signifying the completion of the transaction. Details of the payment including the payment method chosen, the payment amount settled and payment date and time would be displayed. Users are recommended to download a copy of the Acknowledgement and Payment Receipt for their future reference.

Please check your junk mail / spam folder as email sent by the system may have been delivered to the junk mail / spam folder instead of the inbox of your email account.

The email has rebounded due to an invalid email address, the fact that the email account is full or the application/ use of email blocking policy by the organization. In the last instance, please consult the IT support of your organization.

If you want to check the status of the application, please contact the ASO at 2825 4226 or by email to apostilleserviceenquiry@judiciary.hk.

A reminder email will be sent to you if the document has not been downloaded after 14 days. Upon expiry of the 21 days’ time limit for download, both application result and e-Apostilled document will not be available for checking and downloading via the e-Apostille Service.

The message indicates the issuer of the certificate used by Judiciary is not trusted by Acrobat Reader by default. To trust the issuer, please follow the steps below:

FAQ - Acrobat Reader Setting (760 KB) FAQ - Foxit PDF Reader Setting (1,023 KB)

The original document and the apostille certificate can be found as the attachment embedded in the same PDF document. You may open the attachment panel of your PDF reader to view the original document and the apostille certificate.

• Hardware requirements:
  • Personal computers or mobile devices with Internet connection.
• Software requirements:
  1. combinations of operating systems and browsers that support iCMS are as follows:
     • Personal Computers

       Browser	Operating System
       	Microsoft Windows 10 / 11	macOS
       Microsoft Edge	Yes	Yes
       Safari	-	Yes
       Mozilla Firefox	Yes	Yes
       Google Chrome	Yes	Yes

     • Mobile Devices

       Browser	Operating System
       	iOS / iPadOS	Android
       Safari	Yes	-
       Mozilla Firefox	Yes	-
       Google Chrome	Yes	Yes

  2. browser settings to be enabled:
     • Javascript
     • Cookies
     • Transport Layer Security (TLS) v1.2
     • • Allow pop-ups from the system

You may check the version of your browser by clicking “HELP” or the wrench icon (usually on the right top of the screen), followed by clicking “About (browser name)”. You will see a screen telling you the browser version number.

Please follow the steps below to enable Javascript in your web browser:

FAQ - Javascript Setting (1,099 KB)

A cookie is a small amount of data created in a computer when a person visits a website on the computer. A cookie can be used to identify a computer which enables the correct functionalities of online services over the internet.

e-Apostille will record your visits by using cookies without collecting any personal identifiable information of the user. If you reject the cookies coming from e-Apostille, you will not be able to use some of the functions of e-Apostille.

To enable cookie in your web browser, please follow the steps below:

FAQ - Cookie Setting (1,173 KB)

TLS 1.2 or 1.3 should be enabled in your browser for using the iCMS. TLS 1.3 is by default enabled in most of the prevailing versions of popular browsers to provide secure communication over a computer network. In case your web browser needs manual setup, please follow the steps below:

FAQ - TLS Setting (513 KB)

Please follow the steps below to allow pop-up window in your web browser:

FAQ - Pop Up Setting (1,625 KB)

The webpages are viewable on browser software running on most commonly used operating systems, including Windows and macOS.

For transaction based services, your operating system and browser combinations must be tested on the e-Apostille beforehand. While it is not practical to test every combination, a pragmatic approach for testing the most popular operating system and browser software combinations is adopted.

To ensure your transactions could be completed as expected, program logics are implemented when you click the customized function buttons (such as "Next", "OK", etc.) on the pages. The buttons of your browser software are disabled by default and you are recommended to use the customized function buttons on the pages of the functions when you conduct your transactions.