APOSTILLE AND AUTHENTICATION SERVICES
The states we serve are California, Texas and Washington D.C. for federal apostille. |
What in the world is an Apostille, I never heard of one until I was told I needed one. The other main question is how much will this COST ME!!
An Apostille is a certificate issued by the state it originates in that proves the authenticity of a public official signature and seal. Each state certifies documents from that state only but the types of documents it certifies or apostilles are usually all the same.
All state issued documents must be an original document or certified document from the state, not a copy of the document you made, this includes notarizied documents.
The Secretary of State for each state provides authentication of public official signatures on documents to be used in other states or outside the United States of America and the state or country of destination determines whether the authentication is an Apostille or Certification.
An Apostille and Certification only certify to the authenticity of the signature of the official who signed the document, the capacity in which that official acted, and when appropriate, the identity of the seal or stamp which the document bears. The Apostille or Certification does not validate the contents of the document.
The apostille has to come from the state the document originated in, we can not take a document from Nevada and get an apostille in California. The respective state authenticates signatures only on documents issued in that state that are signed by a notary public or the following public officials and their deputies of that state:
- County Clerks or Recorders
- Court Administrators of the Superior Court
- Executive Clerks of the Superior Court
- Officers whose authority is not limited to any particular county
- Executive Officers of the Superior Court
- Judges of the Superior Court
- State Officials
We can process your Federal or state documents that originate from Washington D.C., and once we determine which it is get the apostille or certificiation for the document.
Documents signed by the following officials require an apostille issued by the U.S. Department of State:
- U.S. federal official
- U.S. consular officer
- A military notary, judge advocate (10 USC 1044a)
- A foreign consul diplomatic official registered with the U.S. Department of State's Office of Protocol
For more information and a more complete list of documents that you can get an Apostille for go to the
DOCUMENTS PAGE. |
Our prices start at $100.00 for one Apostille and go up depending on what state it is for, if a notary is required, and how soon you need it back.
You can see all our prices and an in depth breakdown for everything by going to the
PRICES PAGE.
You can go to the secretary of states webpage and or research if the country where you are sending your document is part of the Hague convention or you can just call us and we will let you know, less hassle! |
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Ok so you need an Apostille now what do you do?
You hire us and let us handle everything for you, we take all the stress out of the situation and you don't have to worry about your documents being rejected because something is not right or the notary attachment is wrong, we check all that before we leave you or have you look over things before you send the documents to us.
Now the real Question why should you choose to do business with us?
- We perform our service at a reasonable rate because we work for ourselves and you know who handles your documents because you meet us in person. Apostille Prices
- We are not some corporation that just wants to make more money, We are notaries and we ask an honest wage for an honest job.
- There are no phone trees, no push 1 for call centers, just us, and we call you back after you leave a message! We try to not answer the phone when we are with client's.
- There are no hidden fees, we charge a flat fee for this service and we tell you what it costs before you hire us.
- Our fees are based on the document's filed, our skill, our time - travel/distance, not how we are feeling that day or how rich we think you are.
- We are patient which helps you relax because we believe your time as well as ours is valuable.
- Your foot is broke, your back hurts, you have limited mobility, you have a new born, your hair is a mess, or maybe just maybe, you are just tired and do not want to leave the comfort of your house.
- You don't have to worry about things like having to take off from work or hire a babysitter if you work from home.
- You don't want the stress from more traffic than you already have to deal with
- You hate waiting in lines for hours and paying for parking or getting a ticket at one of the "no parking between the hours of" meter areas or losing your place in line because you leave to feed the meter.
- You wait for hours only to find out something is wrong and you can't get it done.
- We charge you a flat fee for coming to you, doing the notary if necessary, getting an Apostille AND return it to you!
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I have questions, and want to know more, like How do I really know if I need an Apostille?
There are lots of complicated answers, but the simple answer is if the country you are sending the document too asks for one you need one, there is really no need to research if the country is a party to the Apostille Convention or the Hague Conference, they know. You call us and we tell you and for countries that are not part of the Hague convention a Certification can issued by the Secretary of State that will require Embassy Legalization, and sometimes you need to go to the consulate or embassy before getting a certification.
What if I do it myself?
You can. You can mail your documents Authentication requests by mail to the Sacramento office, LA office does not accept them. The processing time is typically six to eight business days from the date the request is received in the Sacramento office if they are done correctly. Then they mail them back which takes between 1-3 days
Once we receive your documents in the mail we get them done and back to you by USPS within 1-3 days for the same price!
What if they did not ask for one what should I do! All right Let's say you are sending your document to another country and you do not know if you need an Apostille or they did not ask for one and you want to make sure all your documents don't come back to you after weeks or months only to find out you need one, then can contact the Embassy or Consulate of the country where you intend to use the document in order to find out what your options are and if you need one, they will also tell you if you need to come to them first which some countries require.
Many other questions can be answered here at the Common Questions page |
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