Foreign countries are classified into two
categories, the first one is countries that are participating in the Hague Convention; those countries require
apostille attestation for your documents, the rest of the countries are countries that don’t participate in the
Hague Convention, therefore, using documents in those countries depends upon the embassies/consulates requirements;
and it’s called legalization.
We’re going to focus the spotlight on international apostille service in this article.
There’re a few simple procedures required to obtain the apostille stamp; it depends on the type of certificate to
be authenticated.
- The document must be notarized by State Notary Public (Corporate documents)
- Forward the document to the Secretary of your State.
Note that federal document can’t be submitted to the SOS as they don\t have the authority to apostille
federally-issued documents, it has to be sent directly to the US Department of State in Washington DC.
*Most Secretaries of State only certify documents that have been issued by State officials.
Processing time to obtain the apostille differs according to the Secretary of your State. Some states may
complete the certification in a few business days, others may take over a week.
For example, the California Secretary of State takes over 16 business days to complete the processing of your
document while other states may complete the certification in two or three days.
Can you use the apostille seal in a country that isn’t in the convention?
No. But you of course you can use the document abroad in a non-participating country if fulfilled the required
actions by the embassy.
Usually, each embassy has its own terms and conditions.
what is the core distinction between apostille and legalization?
As you presumably realize, apostille and legalization are processes aim to authenticate the use of legal
documents abroad in foreign countries.
You may get your document apostilled or legalized depending upon the foreign country where you intend to use your
document. Therefore, Legal procedures change accordingly.
First and foremost, to legalize your document, you need to figure out the particular specifications required by
the country’s embassy where you want to use your legal documents.
The general steps go like this:
· Authenticate document from the Secretary of State in which document
were issued
· Authenticate the legal document from the US Department of State.
· Obtain embassy legalization.
Besides, certain embassies may require an additional requirement.
Legal procedures of the legalization process are somehow time-consuming; and demands much effort to obtain the
authentication.
Consequently, in 1961, a group of countries agreed to unify the legalization process, which means instead of
having different legal procedures in each country with different requirements, you only need a single seal to
use your document abroad.
Here are some documents you may have the apostille on:
· Circuit Court documents.
· Birth and death documents.
· School transcripts.
· Marriage and divorce certificates.
· Warrants.
· Trademarks.
· State criminal background checks.
· Power of attorney.
· Certificate of existence
· Certificate of Incumbency
· Patent Assignment
· Trademark Assignment
· Technical Data Sheet
· Certificate of Free Sale
· Certificate of Analysis
· an ISO Certificate,
Requirements for each state may diverge slightly, however; the core factors are roughly the same.
Let’s take two states as an example
Like California (Los Angeles office) calls for the same demands as Florida SOS the core difference is in
processing time and the required fees.
Nearly all states require the following:
- Notarized document (if required depending on the type of document).
- A cover L contains; your name, address, name of the country where you wish to use your documents, and an
email address.
- A self-addressed envelope for the return & a prepaid airbill if you wish to use express mail.
- A check or money order payable to the Secretary of State.
Most of the time, all Secretary of State require the same points mentioned above.
Can anyone get your documents apostilled for you?
Yes. You can find several agencies providing apostille services near you, to help you in the authentication
process.
However, you must choose a trusted agency to authenticate your documents, whether corporate or personal
documents, definitely they must be of high importance for you, hence; you need insurance that your documents are
in safe hands,
And will be processed on time.
What kind of guarantees you should consider?
Previous experience with recognized and trusted clients.
Operating time of the agency, often really important, as long as they have a glorious history in the
authentication field.
ü It means a lot to rank on google, So, you may have a look at that as well.
ü Got an actual office in the U.S.A.
What makes you trust One Day Apostille regarding apostille services?
Since the creation of our agency, we’re having a vision of making authentication of the US documents much clearer
for you, by providing authoritative and precise information pertains obtaining the Apostille seal and help you
realize the legal practices to get your documents certified, based on our immense and well-established
reputation across all the states in the ed States of America.
We’re always ready to offer you a hand whenever needed, sometimes it takes a lot of time and energy in order to
pass all the legal procedures required to have your documents authenticated. Our role is to make sure that
everything is done for you through our expedites services in providing Apostille Stamp for over 80 countries in
the Hague convention and embassy legalization to the rest of the world.
How to get your document apostilled/legalized?
One Day Apostille provides several
apostille and legalization services to ensure that everything is completed for you as fast as possible.
Even if you wish to do all the procedures yourself, we advised you to use our legal courier services, as you can
benefit from using FedEx and UPS overnight shipping services at the lowest rates in the United States.
As an example, the regular rate of using FedEx overnight services is $14; however, if you used One Day apostille
courier services, the service will cost you only $10.
Additionally, you can benefit from a totally free of charge review of your legal document; specialists in the
document legalization services will advise you what you need exactly to certify your legal document in order to
prevent any rejection from the embassy in case of missing any requirement.
No one refuses a free service. You can contact us to review your legal document via this email address:
support@onedayapostille.com.
