Twenty-seven counters issue apostilles in Switzerland: twenty-six cantonal chancelleries and the Federal Chancellery. Sending your document to the wrong one costs a week. Here is the map.
A document follows its signer: civil-status records go to the chancellery of the issuing canton, diplomas to the canton of the school, notarial deeds to the canton of the notary, commercial-register extracts to the canton of the company’s seat, judgments to the canton of the court.
Documents signed by federal offices are apostilled by the Federal Chancellery in Bern: criminal-record extracts (Federal Office of Justice), SEM attestations, federal diplomas, documents of federal courts. A cantonal chancellery will simply refuse them.
A sworn translation is apostilled where the translator’s signature is certified — usually the notary’s canton. A certified copy follows the notary who made it, not the original document. When in doubt, name what you have in the order notes: routing is precisely our job.
Chancelleries authenticate only signatures they hold on file. File a Vaud diploma in Bern and it bounces — politely, after several days. Our first task on every order is this routing, and it is why «wrong counter» is a category of problem our clients never meet.