If you are moving, marrying, studying, adopting, working or doing business abroad, sooner or later an official in another country will ask for a document of yours — a birth certificate, a diploma, a power of attorney — 'with apostille.' The request sounds like a rubber stamp. It is actually a specific international certification with its own rules, and getting it wrong is the most common reason documents are rejected abroad.
The apostille, in one paragraph
An apostille is a certificate attached to a public document by a designated authority in the country where the document was issued. It confirms that the signature, seal and office on the document are genuine. Under the Hague Apostille Convention of 1961, every member country agrees to accept documents bearing an apostille from another member country without further proof. Instead of a chain of consular stamps, one certificate does the job.
Who issues an apostille in the United States?
It depends entirely on who issued your document. Documents issued by a state — vital records, notarized documents, court records, school records — are apostilled by that state's Secretary of State. Not 'a' Secretary of State: the one in the state of origin. A Maryland apostille cannot certify a document issued in Virginia or New York.
Documents issued by the federal government — FBI background checks, documents of federal agencies, federal court records — are authenticated by the U.S. Department of State in Washington DC. The federal certificate is technically an 'authentication certificate,' but it serves the same purpose and is universally called the federal apostille.
Documents people apostille most often
Birth, marriage and death certificates; powers of attorney; diplomas and transcripts; corporate records and agreements; adoption dossiers; court orders; and single-status or background affidavits. If a foreign authority will rely on the document for something official — a visa, a marriage license, a school enrollment, a business registration — it will very likely need an apostille first.
The steps nobody tells you about
Many documents are not apostille-ready when people receive them. A document signed before a notary usually must first be certified by the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where that notary is commissioned, and only then will the Secretary of State apostille it. Vital records must be certified copies issued by the right office. Skipping a step does not slow the process down — it restarts it.
Apostille also only works for Hague Convention countries. For other destinations — much of the Middle East and parts of Asia and Africa, for example — the document goes through an authentication chain ending in legalization at that country's embassy or consulate. The paperwork is similar, but the route is different, and using the wrong one is a wasted month.
How RL Notary handles it
From Beltsville, minutes from Washington DC, we manage apostilles for documents issued in all 50 states and authentication for federal documents at the Department of State: the notarization and clerk certification first when needed, the correct filing, and tracked delivery. Call (202) 875-6829 with your document and destination country, and you will get a straight answer about which process applies and how long it should take.