Vietnamese Embassy and Consulate Authentication Is No Longer Required

Apostille

Sep 15

Effective September 11, 2026, Vietnam joined the Hague Apostille Convention. U.S. documents bearing the appropriate apostille can now be used in Vietnam without additional authentication by a Vietnamese embassy or consulate.

Previously, California documents required a California Secretary of State apostille followed by Vietnamese consular authentication. Federal documents first required authentication by the U.S. Department of State and then authentication by the Vietnamese Embassy.

Under the new process:

California documents generally require only a California Secretary of State apostille.
Federal documents (such as FBI background checks) still require a U.S. Department of State apostille, but no additional Vietnamese Embassy authentication is required.

This is excellent news for our clients. The Vietnamese Consulate previously charged a whopping $100 per document for same-day authentication. Eliminating that final step saves money and at least one additional day of processing.

SF Notary + Apostille provides expedited apostille service, document retrieval, federal apostille processing, and FedEx International Priority shipping for documents being sent to Vietnam.

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John Cavalli

Vietnamese Embassy and Consulate Authentication Is No Longer Required

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