How to Serve Someone in Another Country: Hague and Alternatives

To serve someone in another country, you deliver the summons and complaint through whichever formal channel the destination country recognizes: the Hague Service Convention if the country is a member, the Inter-American Convention for many Latin American nations, or Letters Rogatory through diplomatic channels when no treaty applies. Each route has its own forms, translation requirements, and timelines, and picking the wrong one can cost months or get your case dismissed.¹

Ask for a Waiver Before Anything Else

Before you spend money on translations and international mail, ask the defendant to waive formal service. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(d) lets you send a written waiver request, and a defendant outside the United States gets at least 60 days from the date you sent it to return the signed waiver. A waiver request aimed at a business must go to an officer, a managing or general agent, or another agent authorized to accept service.²

One catch: if a foreign defendant ignores your waiver request, you cannot force them to pay the cost of formal service. Rule 4(d)(2)’s cost-shifting penalty applies only to defendants located within the United States. The attempt still costs almost nothing, and if the defendant cooperates you skip months of waiting and thousands of dollars in fees. Send the waiver request while you prepare your formal service package, not instead of preparing it.

Figure Out Which Legal Framework Applies

If the defendant will not waive service, the next question is which treaty (if any) governs. Three paths exist:

The Hague Service Convention covers 84 contracting parties. If the destination country is a member, its procedures generally take priority.¹
The Inter-American Convention on Letters Rogatory and its Additional Protocol (IACAP) covers 15 countries in the Americas, including Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia.³
Letters Rogatory, an older diplomatic process, is the fallback when no treaty exists between the United States and the destination country.

Check the HCCH status table to confirm Hague membership, and the State Department’s page for IACAP participation. Some countries belong to both, in which case either may apply depending on the circumstances.

Serving Under the Hague Convention

Hague service starts with Form USM-94, the “Request for Service Abroad of Judicial or Extrajudicial Documents,” available from the U.S. Marshals Service.⁴ Complete it in duplicate. The form asks for your information, the receiving Central Authority’s address, and the full name and physical address of the person being served. A post office box will not work: the foreign authority needs a street address to attempt personal delivery.

With the USM-94, include the documents you are serving, usually the summons and complaint. Most Hague countries require the documents and the USM-94 form itself to be translated into the destination country’s official language. Use a professional translator. A rejected translation means starting over, and some Central Authorities are strict about accuracy.⁵

The completed package goes to the destination country’s Central Authority, typically a ministry of justice or foreign affairs. You do not send anything directly to the defendant. Look up the correct name and address on the HCCH authorities page.⁶ Sending your package to the wrong office is a common and costly mistake, so verify the address before mailing.

Under Article 12 of the Convention, the Central Authority’s services are generally free, but the receiving country can bill you for expenses the local process server or judicial officer incurs, or for using a particular method of service you requested. The Central Authority will tell you if payment is required.⁷

After the Central Authority receives your package, it arranges service under its own country’s procedures. A local court officer, a government agent, or a private process server may carry it out. Once service is completed or attempts fail, the Central Authority fills in the certificate section on the USM-94 stating the date, method, and location of service, or the reason it could not be completed. That certificate is your proof of service.⁵

Expect the whole process to take two to six months, sometimes longer in countries with overburdened courts. There is no way to speed up a foreign Central Authority, which is why you should start immediately after filing your complaint.

What About Mail?

Article 10(a) of the Hague Convention preserves “the freedom to send judicial documents, by postal channels, directly to persons abroad” unless the destination country has objected.⁸ Many countries have objected, including China, Germany, Switzerland, South Korea, Argentina, Norway, Egypt, Turkey, and Ukraine.⁹ If the destination country is on the objection list, mail service is off the table.

Even when a country has not objected, mail service carries legal risk. Article 10(a) uses “send” rather than “serve,” and U.S. courts are split on whether that word covers formal service of process. Research how the federal circuit where your case is pending has read Article 10(a) before relying on mail. If the case law is unfavorable or unclear, use the Central Authority.

Serving Under the Inter-American Convention

The IACAP covers Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.³ It uses its own mandatory form (not the USM-94), available through the Department of Justice’s designated contractor, which performs U.S. Central Authority functions under this treaty.

Submit the original and two copies of the form along with three copies of the summons, complaint, and any other documents to be served. The documents must be translated into the destination country’s language, though the IACAP form itself does not need translation.³ Before submission, the clerk of the U.S. court where your case is pending places their seal and signature on the form. The foreign Central Authority completes page 7 as proof of service. You do not need a judge to sign a formal request, and the process is generally faster than traditional Letters Rogatory.

Letters Rogatory for Non-Treaty Countries

When the destination country belongs to neither treaty, Letters Rogatory is the fallback. This is a formal request from your U.S. court to a court in the foreign country asking it to assist with service. A judge in your case must sign the request, which then travels through diplomatic channels.

The package, including translated copies of the legal documents, goes to the U.S. Department of State. State forwards it to the U.S. embassy or consulate in the foreign country, which presents it to local courts for execution. The State Department charges $2,275 to process Letters Rogatory.¹⁰ That covers only State’s handling; translation, foreign court fees, and local attorney expenses come on top.

This is the slowest route. The diplomatic relay plus the foreign court’s own timeline commonly runs six months to a year, sometimes longer. Use it only when no treaty option exists.

Court-Ordered Alternative Service

When conventional methods fail or are impractical (for example, the defendant has no verifiable physical address), Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(f)(3) lets a court authorize any service method not prohibited by an applicable international agreement.² Courts have used this to allow service by email and even through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

You need a motion showing that conventional methods are unlikely to succeed and that your proposed alternative is reasonably calculated to actually notify the defendant. For social media, courts want evidence the account is authentic, recently active, and genuinely used by the defendant. A dormant profile will not persuade a judge.

This is not a workaround for the Hague Convention. If the Convention applies and the destination country objects to a particular method, the court cannot authorize that method under Rule 4(f)(3). Treaty obligations still set the outer limit of what a court can order.

Serving a Foreign Business

Serving a corporation, partnership, or other business abroad follows the same general methods, with one difference: personal hand-delivery is off limits. Rule 4(h)(2) directs that a foreign business be served by any method available under Rule 4(f) for individuals, except delivering the documents in person.² Hague Central Authority, IACAP, Letters Rogatory, mail service (where permitted), and court-ordered alternative service are all available; direct hand-delivery is not.

The 90-Day Deadline Does Not Apply Abroad

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(m) requires domestic service within 90 days of filing, but explicitly exempts service under Rules 4(f), 4(h)(2), and 4(j)(1), which govern service on foreign individuals, foreign businesses, and foreign governments.¹¹ That does not mean unlimited time. Courts still expect reasonable diligence, and months of inaction after filing will draw scrutiny. The exemption recognizes the reality that international service routinely runs longer than 90 days.

Filing Proof of Service

Whatever route you use, the last step is filing proof of service with the U.S. court. Without it, the court has no record that the defendant was properly notified, and the case cannot move to default judgment or any other stage that requires the defendant’s participation.

What counts as proof depends on the method:

Hague Convention: the completed certificate on the USM-94, stating the date, method, and location of service or the reason service failed.⁵
Inter-American Convention: page 7 of the IACAP form, completed by the foreign Central Authority.³
Letters Rogatory: a formal document from the foreign court that executed the request.
Mail service: a signed return receipt showing delivery to the defendant’s address.
Court-ordered alternative service: whatever the court’s order specifies, which may include screenshots, delivery confirmations, or a sworn declaration.

File proof with the clerk as soon as you receive it. If the certificate shows service failed, it will state the reason: wrong address, refusal to accept, or inability to locate the defendant. That tells you whether to retry with corrected details, switch methods, or ask the court for permission to use alternative service under Rule 4(f)(3).

1
HCCH. Convention of 15 November 1965 on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters – Status Table
2
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 4 – Summons
3
U.S. Department of State. Inter-American Service Convention and Additional Protocol
4
U.S. Marshals Service. USM-94 – Request for Service Abroad of Judicial or Extrajudicial Documents
5
U.S. Marshals Service. USM-94 Request for Service Abroad of Judicial or Extrajudicial Documents
6
HCCH. Authorities per Party
7
U.S. Department of Justice. Guidance on Service Abroad in U.S. Litigation
8
HCCH. Convention of 15 November 1965 on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters – Full Text
9
U.S. Marshals Service. Hague Convention on the Service Abroad
10
eCFR. Schedule of Fees
11
United States Courts. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure