“My document was issued three months ago; will an apostille keep it valid?” The question has two halves: how old the document is, and what the apostille does to that age. The checker computes the first half and answers the second with a reminder. It is written for anyone travelling with a criminal record, a civil registry extract, a residence certificate or a certificate of capacity to marry, and for the office that has to decide whether the document is recent enough.
A date goes in, an age comes out
The date of issue of the document is entered; a document type may be chosen (other, criminal record, multilingual certificate of capacity to marry, residence certificate, civil registry extract). The checker counts the days from that date to today and converts them into months using an average month of thirty point four days, not calendar months. A date in the future returns only a warning. A fixed reminder follows every result: the Convention sets no expiry for the apostille, the apostille does not extend the validity of the document, and the authority that receives the document sets its own freshness rule. When a criminal record or a certificate of capacity to marry is selected, a short note specific to that type is added to the result.
What it cannot measure: the authority’s limit
The freshness limit is not one number in the law; the receiving authority sets it. The checker neither knows nor guesses the limits authorities set. No extra note appears on the civil registry extract or the residence certificate, since this site’s review found no general official rule on their freshness. The apostille’s own date is not taken into account: enter the date of the document, not the date of the apostille. The checker does not examine the document’s authenticity.
The basis of the reminder
The apostille page of the Onikişubat district governorship states the rule plainly: the absence of a general expiry for the apostille in the Convention does not make the document valid without limit; the validity period in the document’s own legislation applies separately, and an apostille does not revalidate an expired document. Circular 2009/31 of the Turkish Ministry of Interior notes that the apostille does not extend to the text of the document, and article 5 of the Convention limits it to signature, capacity and seal.
After the count
If the document is older than the authority’s limit, the remedy is a fresh document and a new chain; apostilling an old document saves no time. If it is recent enough, the apostille is obtained, the document is translated and the translation is certified by a notary. The date you enter is processed in your browser alone; no data reaches this site.