Apostille for Government Documents

September 28, 2025

When doing business internationally, you may be required to authenticate documents. This process makes sure signatures and stamps on important public documents are genuine and can be recognized by another country. It can seem simple, but there are many nuances to the process that must be navigated, and even one mistake could cause a document to be rejected by a foreign government.

The documents that obtain apostille for originals an apostille are often documents issued by a state or county official, such as birth, marriage, and death certificates; court rulings; extracts from commercial registrars or other registers; academic diplomas, etc. Documents signed by notaries and other public officials also need a notary seal. In most cases, these documents will be accompanied by a certified copy of the original document and an official seal (usually notarized) and are then submitted to this office for certification.

Apostille for Legal and Official Documents

This process is called an apostille or certificate of authentication. The type of apostille required depends on the destination country of the document. An apostille is a simplified way to ensure that a public document will be recognized as valid in another member country of the 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents. Apostilles are only necessary for countries that are party to this treaty.

A document that will be used in a non-member country requires a certificate of authenticity from the Department of State. An authentication is a sealed certificate that confirms the authority of the public official who signed the document and certifies the validity of the signature and seal. The document must be notarized and reviewed by the county clerk before it is submitted to the Department of State for authentication.