Apostille is used to authenticate a document (proof the legality of) for foreign use. This form of authentication was established by 961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in order to facilitate the document turnaround across all participant countries. Apostille is a verification from either State or Federal Government that the certifier (County Clerk, County Official, Notary public and such) was authorized to sign and stamp as well as acted in full legal capacity during the time of certification. All Apostilles must have a unique serial number and nine other mandatory references as well as a Seal. In any instance once an Apostille was applied it can no longer be used in the United States and is only valid in the country of destination.

 

In US there are two kinds of Apostilles: issued by State or by Federal Government.  In most cases you are required to get State Apostilles, the most common examples of such documents would be – Birth/Marriage/ Death certificates and all Notarized documents. Federal Apostille is only required when a federal document needs to be processed. Most common ones would be FBI Background Check and Certificate of Naturalization.

List of Documents that are most commonly apostilled: