An apostille, on paper or in an electronic file, consists of ten numbered fields; a reader who does not know what the fields mean cannot read the certificate. This checker explains them one at a time. It is meant for the person holding an apostilled document who wants to understand what is in front of them, and for the foreign clerk assessing an apostille that came from Türkiye.
Choose a field, read its meaning
A field number is chosen. The checker prints the field’s name from the annex to the Convention and what it certifies: 1 the country; 2 the person who signed the document; 3 the capacity in which that person acted; 4 the authority whose seal or stamp the document bears; 5 the place where the apostille was issued; 6 the date; 7 the authority that issued it; 8 the apostille number; 9 the seal of that authority; 10 the signature of the official. Two fields carry a special note. Field 2, on a notarised translation, names the notary rather than the translator: the apostille certifies the notary’s signature. Field 7, on a Turkish paper apostille, names a governorship, a district governorship or a judicial commission; what this field shows on an e-Apostil was not seen in this site’s review. Two fixed reminders close every result: the title of the certificate is always in French, “Apostille (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)”; and the apostille certifies signature, capacity and seal, never the content of the document.
Verification happens elsewhere
The checker does not read the document, takes no file and does not say whether a certificate is genuine. Verification is done on two official pages, to which the checker only links: the document verification page of the official e-Apostil system, where the file is uploaded and its hash compared (there is no lookup by number), and the Ministry of Interior page for paper apostilles from governorships and district governorships, which asks for the serial number, the verification code and the date of certification. On paper apostilles issued by judicial commissions this site’s review found no online verification route; article 7 of the Convention covers them instead: each commission enters the certificates it issues in a register of certifications that a Turkish regulation obliges it to keep, and a check of a certificate against that register is requested from the issuing commission. A foreign apostille is looked up in that country’s own register; the party state check shows the link where one exists.
Where the field names come from
The ten fields are those of article 4 of the Convention and the model certificate in its annex; the Turkish Official Gazette text adds that the certificate is a square with sides of at least nine centimetres. That the apostille does not extend to the text of the document is stated in circular 2009/31 of the Ministry of Interior; that the notary’s signature is the element covered on a translation is stated by the Onikişubat district governorship. Türkiye’s e-Register address is recorded in the HCCH implementation chart of the e-APP.
After reading the certificate
If the foreign authority wants the apostille translated as well, the document is translated with its certificate page by a sworn translator and the translation is certified by a notary. Your field choice remains in your browser; this site does not see which field you looked at.