Apostille: Since Vietnam is not a member of Apostille Treaty, apostille from any member country may not have effect in Vietnam.

Notarization: In many countries (but not necessarily all), a distinction is made between public documents and private documents. Private documents must first notarized by a local notary, while public documents can often skip this step.

Competent authorities: ministry of foreign affairs, diplomatic missions, consular offices or other agencies entrusted to perform consular functions of the country where the documents are issued. Please note that some diplomatic missions or consular offices of some countries in Vietnam do not perform the function of consular certification.

While foreign investors can proceed this step in their home country, here we only present the case where:
(i) the investors carry out the procedure of consular certification with competent foreign authorities located in Vietnam; and
(ii) the respective foreign authorities located in Vietnam perform consular certification.