Frequently asked questions

An apostille is a certificate attached to a US public document that makes it legally recognized in another country that belongs to the Hague Apostille Convention. If a foreign government, court, university, employer, or bank has asked you for an apostille, an apostilled document, or a Hague certificate, you need one. If they asked for legalization, authentication, or attestation and the country is not a Hague member, you need embassy legalization instead.

For state documents, the Secretary of State of the state that issued the document. For federal documents (FBI background checks, IRS letters, USPTO records), the US Department of State in Washington, DC. We do not issue apostilles; we get them issued for you, correctly, the first time.

Our service fee is $99 standard, $199 rush, $299 expedited, $149 for federal documents, and from $399 for embassy legalization. Government fees ($5 to $25 in most states, $20 federal) and return shipping are added at cost as separate lines. Full details on the pricing page.

Two parts. Our processing: standard within 2 business days of receipt, rush 5 to 7, expedited 1 to 3. Then the government's processing, which varies by state from days to weeks and which we cannot speed up beyond using whatever expedite channel the state offers. We tell you the current estimate for your state before you commit.

By mail, no, and be careful of anyone who says otherwise. A same-day apostille requires physically walking the document into a state office that offers walk-in service, on the same day. Expedited is the fastest realistic mail-in option.

Yes. Documents go to the state that issued them, wherever you are. We are in Kansas; most of our clients are not.

The original or a certified copy issued by the government office that holds the record. A photocopy cannot be apostilled. For documents like powers of attorney or affidavits, the original notarized document.

Birth, marriage, and death certificates; divorce decrees and court orders; diplomas and transcripts; powers of attorney and affidavits; corporate documents; FBI and other federal records; adoption documents; and most notarized documents. Each has its own requirements; see the document pages.

An apostille is one certificate accepted by all Hague Convention countries. Legalization is a chain of certifications ending at the destination country's embassy, required by countries that are not Hague members (UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan and others). We handle both. More here.

Depends on the destination country and the receiving institution. Many require a certified translation of the document, sometimes of the apostille too. We offer certified translation bundled with the apostille from $299. Ask the receiving institution what they need; we can work from their letter.

Some documents, yes: powers of attorney, affidavits, contracts, copies of passports, diplomas in most states. Some, no: birth certificates and court documents are certified by the issuing office and must not be notarized. FBI background checks must not be notarized. We tell you which applies to yours in the quote.

We check for the common causes before submitting so this rarely happens. If we should have caught it, we resubmit at no additional service fee. If the state rejects for a reason nobody could have seen from the document, we explain what it needs and help you get a corrected version; state fees may apply again.

If we review your document and it cannot be apostilled, you owe nothing. If you cancel before we submit to the government, we refund our fee less any shipping already paid. Once submitted, government fees are not refundable by the government, so neither can we refund them; our service fee is refunded if we failed to deliver what we quoted.

Your documents are originals and we handle them like it: tracked in, tracked out, locked when not in process. Your quote request goes to our private intake system and nowhere else. We never sell or share it.

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