A significant number of Canadians who need apostilles are not currently in Canada. Teaching in Korea, working in the UAE, studying in Europe, or living abroad long-term - these applicants need to run a Canadian government process from the other side of the world.

Most Canadian competent authorities accept international courier submissions. GAC, BC's OIC Administration Office, Alberta's Ministry of Justice, and Saskatchewan's Authentication Services all accept packages from abroad. You courier the documents to the authority from wherever you are. They mail or courier the completed documents to whatever address you provide  - including international addresses.

The risk: sending original government documents internationally by courier. Use fully tracked services with insurance. A lost original birth certificate or RCMP check requires restarting from the beginning - reordering, reprocessing, and losing weeks.

When documents need to be notarized by a Canadian notary but you are not in Canada, options include:

• Canadian embassy or consulate in your country - some Canadian missions notarize documents for Canadian citizens; a consular fee applies. Not all missions offer this for all document types.
• Remote Online Notarization from a Canadian notary by video - acceptable for GAC (contact them first to confirm) but not acceptable for Ontario ODS, which requires wet-ink originals.
• Sending originals to a trusted person in Canada - a family member or friend takes the documents to a local notary, then mails the notarized package to the competent authority and the completed apostilled documents back to you internationally.

An RCMP check can be initiated from abroad. An RCMP-accredited fingerprinting agency in Canada accepts ink prints taken by an authorized overseas provider, digitizes them via card-scan, and submits electronically. CCRTIS mails results to the address you specify - including international.

For applicants outside Canada who cannot manage the physical logistics, a Canadian document-service company can act as the local presence -  receiving originals, taking them to a notary, submitting to the authority, and couriering completed documents internationally. The service adds cost, but eliminates logistics burden and reduces the risk of a packaging or routing error that causes a rejection.