Vietnam Hague Apostille Convention 2026: Why documents for Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic still need a separate route
The 1961 Hague Apostille Convention entered into force for Vietnam on 11 September 2026, replacing consular legalisation with a single apostille for public documents exchanged with most contracting states. Ecovis consultants explain why documents moving between Vietnam and Germany, Austria or the Czech Republic need a separate route check.
Vietnam’s accession is a welcome simplification for groups carrying out transactions or hiring foreign staff in Vietnam. For three European states, however, the apostille route is still not open.
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Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic objected to Vietnam’s accession under Article 12 of the Convention. The Convention therefore does not apply between Vietnam and these states, as is also set out in Article 5(4) of Decree 293/2026/NĐ-CP on the Vietnamese side. What applies instead differs by state. For Germany and Austria, consular legalisation remains the route for corporate documents, powers of attorney, degrees and civil-status certificates. German missions in Vietnam, however, legalise only a defined list of mainly civil-status documents, so Vietnamese corporate documents for use in Germany may need an alternative evidence route agreed in advance with the German notary or register court. For the Czech Republic, the 1982 bilateral treaty on legal assistance exempts documents from further verification, and the Czech Embassy in Hanoi does not legalise documents for that reason; whether a specific corporate document falls within the exemption should be confirmed with the receiving authority.
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The concrete risk
The real risk is not the exception but overlooking it, explain the Ecovis experts. Several advisories already in circulation describe the new apostille route without mentioning the three objecting states. A document prepared for the apostille route will not be accepted in Germany or Austria on that basis, and the error usually surfaces only on filing – when the closing timetable is already fixed.
A group with holding structures across several jurisdictions can now face up to three document tracks in one transaction: apostille for contracting states without an objection, consular legalisation for Germany and Austria, and treaty-based exemption where a bilateral agreement applies, as with the Czech Republic. This should be mapped when the closing schedule is drafted, not in the week of closing.
Since 11 September 2026, Vietnam has operated two document regimes side by side. For German and Austrian groups, the decisive step is to fix the route for each document before signing – not at the filing counter.
Vu Manh Quynh, Managing Partner, Attorney-at-Law, Ecovis Vietnam Law, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
What companies should know
Before commissioning a chain of documents, companies should check both the issuing and the destination state against the current status table of the HCCH (Hague Conference on Private International Law) and the list published by Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Decree 293; objections can be withdrawn at any time. Applications for consular certification received by the Vietnamese authorities before 11 September 2026 continue under the previous procedure, and foreign documents legalised before that date remain valid in Vietnam without an apostille (Article 36 of Decree 293). Neither needs to be withdrawn and refiled.
Legal status as of 7 October 2026. This article provides general information and does not constitute legal advice.
