“Double apostille”, çift apostil in Turkish, is an expression used by translation offices and applicants; no such procedure exists under that name in the Convention, the Turkish Notaries Law or the ministerial circulars. What it describes is simple: two separate apostilles, obtained independently, on two documents in the same file, the original and its notarised translation. Using the term correctly starts with seeing that the two certificates attest two different signatures.
Where the expression comes from
An apostille attests one particular signature and capacity on one document. The signature on the original and the signature of the notary who certified the translation are two different signatures; one certificate cannot cover both. When a foreign office wants to see that both the original and the translation came through official channels, each signature needs its own certificate, and practice calls the result a double apostille. Official sources do not use the expression, but they say plainly that two certificates are possible: the Zile District Governor’s Office describes the provincial governor apostilling the original of a university diploma and the district governor apostilling its notarised translation.
Two certificates for two signatures
The apostille on the original attests the signature of the official or judge who issued the document; the apostille on the translation attests the notary’s signature. The second says nothing about the accuracy of the translation; in the words of the Onikişubat District Governor’s Office, the apostille confirms the notarial certification, not the content of the translation. “A double-apostilled document” does not mean a document checked twice; it means two documents checked once each.
Judicial documents: two authorities in one file
On court judgments the two certificates come from two different authorities. The original of the judgment is apostilled by the presidency of the judicial commission (adli yargı adalet komisyonu başkanlığı) at a high criminal court centre. The notarised translation of the judgment is a notarial act, and its apostille comes from the governor or district governor under article 199 of the Notaries Law. One file then holds a commission certificate next to a district governor’s certificate, and both are correct. On administrative documents and notarial acts both certificates come from a governor’s office and the matter ends at one counter.
An unnecessary second apostille
Which certificate is needed is decided by the foreign authority that will receive the document, not by a Turkish office. Whether it wants the certificate on the original, on the translation or on both is for that authority to say; for Germany the German missions write that the multilingual forms need neither an apostille nor a translation. Obtaining two certificates without asking produces, at best, a redundant step and, at worst, a file assembled in the wrong order. France’s own rule is instructive: where the translation of a French document is to be apostilled, it has to be made by a sworn translator, the translator’s signature certified, and the translation presented together with the original; the certificate on a translation carries meaning only alongside the original.
Order of steps when both are needed
If two certificates are required the order does not change: the original is apostilled first; the apostilled original is then translated, its certificate included where the institution asks for it; the translation is certified by a notary and the second certificate is placed on that certification. Done the other way round, the translation does not contain the certificate on the original and the receiving office cannot match the two documents. On a file going to a state outside the Convention the expression has no counterpart; there the translation heads the chain and the certification runs as a single sequence.