Legally, a document issued in Bern falls under State Chancellery in Bern. In practice our standard route frees you from that counter: a notarized certified copy is made from your upload and the apostille goes on it — a copy suffices, whatever the canton. The original only enters the picture if your destination expressly requires the apostille on the original.
Order an apostille →Upload a PDF or photo; a notary establishes the certified true copy (included) and that copy receives the apostille — processed through our Vaud office. Nothing to post, and identical turnaround whether the document comes from Bern or anywhere else.
Some authorities insist the apostille sit on the original issued in Bern: we then file with State Chancellery in Bern. Send us the original by registered mail after ordering (address confirmed by e-mail) — it comes back apostilled.
Criminal records and other federal documents belong to the Federal Chancellery in Berne, not to Bern. Tick «federal document» in the form — we route it.
the canton of Bern is bilingual, and that is worth money here. Civil status and administrative documents can be issued in German or in French — so if your file is going to France, Belgium or a francophone country, ask for the French version and you skip the certified translation entirely. Say which language you need when you order; changing it afterwards means a new document.
Bern is the one canton where two chancelleries sit in the same city, and confusing them costs days. The cantonal chancellery apostilles Bernese documents; the Federal Chancellery, a few streets away, apostilles federal ones such as criminal-record extracts. Same city, different counters, no transfers between them.