General Information

The Philippines acceded to the Hague Apostille Convention on September 12, 2018. However, the Federal Republic of Germany has declared an objection to the accession of the Philippines, so that documents issued by the Philippines with Apostilles but without legalization by the German Embassy in Manila continue to have no effect in German law.

Legalization of a foreign document constitutes a proof of authenticity for German authorities (Sec. 13, Para. 1-3 Consular Act, Sec. 438 Para. 2 Civil Procedure Law). However, German authorities are free to consider and use Philippine documents as authentic without any further formality by way of free assessment of evidence (Sec. 438 Para. 1 Civil Procedure Law). To avoid unnecessary delay, you may first want to inquire with the relevant German authority, whether they mandate to have your Philippine documents legalized or not.

The paper Apostille is issued by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Please follow the instructions on their homepage https://www.apostille.gov.ph/. The Apostille for PSA documents as well as certain other documents like NBI clearance can be ordered online. For some public documents, other authentications need to be obtained first.

For the legalization process, no German translations are required.

Procedure

If you want to apply for legalization directly at the Embassy, you must already have obtained the paper Apostille. It is mandatory to book an appointment through this link. Walk-ins cannot be accommodated.

You can opt to have a representative file the application on your behalf. In such cases the representative must present a written and signed power-of-attorney of the document owner as well as a copy of the ID of the document owner.

Additional Information for Certain Document Types

If the PSA certificate is illegible, an additional civil status certificate issued by the Local Civil Registrar (LCR) is required.

In case of delayed birth registration of more than 10 years, the following documents must be submitted additionally:

• Baptismal certificate
• Elementary school certificate (Elementary School Permanent Record / Form 137) of the person to be examined. Please do not submit secondary school certificates or college/university transcripts.

In case a birth certificate and civil status certificates (CENOMAR (Certificate of No Marriage) or CEMAR (Advisory on Marriages No. 5)) shall be legalized: make sure that all personal data in the CENOMAR or CEMAR matches the personal data in your birth certificate exactly.

On submission at the requesting German authorities, civil status certificates (CENOMAR (Certificate of No Marriage) or CEMAR (Advisory on Marriages No. 5)) should not be older than 6 months. You should thus submit up-to-date civil status certificates for legalization.

Adoption and court orders must be accompanied by a Certificate of Finality, each with paper Apostille.

Processing Time

Complete applications for the legalization of PSA certificates and NBI clearances can usually be processed within one week. For other public documents the necessary verifications may take several weeks. Please refrain from asking for status requests, as those cannot be answered by the Embassy.

After processing the legalized documents will be returned via courier. Courier fees have to be covered by the recipient.

Fees

The fee for legalization is EUR 32.00 per document in accordance with Section I. 7.1 AABGebV (Special Fee Regulation of the Foreign Office). When applying at the Embassy, fees are payable in cash in Philippine Pesos (PHP) at the current exchange rate or by credit card (Visa, MasterCard).