An Apostille is a specialized certificate that is attached to your original documents that authenticates the signature of a public official for use in another country.  This often translates into fewer complications with the country your documents are intended for as they have been fully verified. 

 

If the country that the document will be sent to (“Designation Country") is part of the Hague Convention and/or signed the October 5, 1961 Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (“October Convention”), then the document will simply need to be authenticated by the State of origin or the Department of State, if a Federal document. 

 

If the Designation Country is not part of the Hague Convention and/or did not sign the October Convention then the process will require your document to first be authenticated at the State level, if applicable, and then verified at the Federal level and then finally be delivered the embassy of the Designation Country. 

 

This process can be complicated and either the State or Federal offices can reject these documents for a number of reasons, so it’s important that you have a trained professional who fully understands the process working with you to get your documents authenticated.  Some Apostille companies may not tell you that each Designation Country has their own process and set fees and might hit you with those fees after you’ve already paid them to start the process.  We don’t do that, our price structure takes into account each of the nuances and we are upfront with our services and fees.