Countries - Signatories of the Hague Convention

Perhaps most relevant convention signed regarding company formation is The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalization for Foreign Public Documents of 5th October 1961. This convention has set international rules about recognizing concepts in private law and specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states. Such a certification is called an "apostille". It is an international certification comparable to a notarization and is often added to documents that have been in some manner signed by a Notary, lawyer or other public official such as the clerk of a court of record in their official capacity.

Country signatories to the Hague Conventions:

Countries signatories to the Conventions (note *, where documents may need legalisation)	Jurisdictions where the use of an apostille is allowed although the members are not Hague Convention members (note **, where jurisdictions are considered part of the UK fo r most legislation)
Albania	Andorra
Argentina	Angola
Australia	Angulla **
Austria	Antigua and Barbuda
Belarus	Aruba
Belgium	Armenia
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bahamas
Brazil *	Barbados
Bulgaria	Belize
Canada *	Bermuda
Chile *	Botswana
China, People's Republic of *	British Virgin Islands **
Croatia	Brunei
Cyprus, Republic of	Cayman Islands **
Denmark	Channel Islands **
Egypt	Colombia
Estonia	Comoros Islands
Finland	Czech Republic
France (including Territories)	Djibouti
Georgia *	Dominica (Commonwealth of)
Germany	El Salvador
Greece	Falkland Islands **
Hungary	Fiji
Iceland	Gibraltar **
Ireland, Republic of	Grenada
Israel	Hong Kong
Italy	India Man (Isle of) **
Japan	Japan
Jordan *	Kazakhstan
Korea, Republic of *	Lesotho
Latvia	Liberia
Lithuania	Liechtenstein
Luxembourg	Macau
Malaysia	Malawi
Malta	Marshall Islands
Mexico	Mauritius
Monaco	Montesrrat **
Morocco *	Mozambique
Netherlands, Kingdom of the	Namibia
New Zealand	Netherlands Antilles (The)
Norway	Puerto Rico
Panama	St Kitts and Nevis
Paraguay	Saint Lucia
Peru	St Helena **
Poland	St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Portugal	Samoa
Romania	San Marino
Russia(n) Federation	Seychelles
Serbia and Montenegro	Solomon Islands
Slovakia	Swaziland
Slovenia
South Africa	Tonga
Spain
Sri Lanka
Surinam	Trinidad and Tobago
Sweden	Turks and Caicos Islands **
Switzerland	Tuvalu
Macedonia (FYR of)	Vanuatu
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom (of GB and NI)
United States of America
Uruguay
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)