We prepare your documents for a California apostille and submit them to the California Secretary of State for you: birth, marriage and death certificates, powers of attorney, diplomas and other documents going to Mexico or any other country. Notarization is done on site, in English or Spanish.
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14545 Friar St Ste 100, Van Nuys, CA 91411
An apostille is a certificate from the California Secretary of State that confirms the signature, title and seal of the California official or notary who signed your document. Countries that belong to the Hague Apostille Convention accept it in place of embassy legalization. It does not confirm what the document says.
The authority, court, school or employer abroad decides which document it wants, whether it needs an apostille and whether it needs a translation. Get their requirements in writing if you can.
Public records need a certified copy from the issuing office, never a photocopy. Private documents, such as a power of attorney or a letter, need a California notarization, which we do on site.
We check that the signature on your document is one the Secretary of State can authenticate, complete the cover sheet with the destination country, and submit the request for you.
The Secretary of State issues the apostille certificate for your document. Anyone receiving it can confirm a California apostille on the Secretary of State's apostille verification page.
Print It is not a law firm and cannot give legal advice, including which document a foreign authority requires. That answer comes from the authority that asked for it.
The California Secretary of State apostilles documents signed by a California public official, and original documents notarized by a California notary. It does not accept photocopies.
You need a certified copy issued by a county recorder or by the California Department of Public Health. The Secretary of State can apostille the signature of a county clerk, a county recorder or the State Registrar, which appears at the bottom of the certificate. If yours is signed by a health officer or a local registrar instead, the Secretary of State may first require it to be certified by the county clerk, or a new certified copy from the county recorder or the Department of Public Health.
A notary cannot make a certified copy of a vital record. Under California law, only the State Registrar, local registrars and county recorders can. For births registered in Los Angeles County, the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's Van Nuys branch at 14340 W. Sylvan St issues birth certificates from 1962 onward the same day (except 1972 to 1977), and marriage and death certificates from 1995 onward, according to the county.
Certified copies of California court records, such as a divorce judgment or a name change order, and other documents signed by a California public official in that capacity can be apostilled. Get the certified copy from the office that keeps the record.
Private documents get their apostille through a California notarization: the apostille confirms the notary's signature and seal. We notarize your document in the office, then prepare it for the apostille. The document itself can be in Spanish or another language as long as the notarial certificate is in English. Bring an acceptable photo ID, and do not sign the document before you arrive.
School records are not signed by a public official, so the apostille attaches to a notarization, for example on a statement the school registrar signs in front of a notary. Which version is acceptable depends on your school and the receiving institution, so ask both. A California notary can certify a copy of a power of attorney but not of a diploma or any other document.
Documents issued by a federal agency, including an FBI background check, are apostilled by the U.S. Department of State Office of Authentications, not by the California Secretary of State. The Department of State charges its own fee per document. Do not have the FBI results notarized: the Department of State says a notarized original is no longer valid for its apostille. We roll your fingerprints on ink fingerprint cards for the FBI request itself. Call us if your document is federal and we will talk through it with you.
An apostille comes from the place that issued the document. A birth certificate from Texas gets its apostille from Texas, and a document issued in Mexico gets it in Mexico. The California Secretary of State only authenticates the signatures of California officials and notaries.
California issues the same apostille whatever the destination. Whether you need anything after it depends on whether the receiving country has joined the Hague Apostille Convention. Check the current list of member countries, because countries keep joining.
The apostille is the final authentication step. No embassy or consulate legalization is needed. Mexico has been a member since 1995, and El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua are members too.
The receiving office can still set its own conditions, such as a translation or a recently issued certificate, so check with them.
The California apostille is usually not the last step. That country's embassy or consulate decides what else it needs, which often includes authentication by the U.S. Department of State and then legalization by the embassy or consulate.
Contact the embassy or consulate before you start, so the document is prepared the way they expect.
The Secretary of State does not translate documents. Many receiving countries ask for a translation of the document, the apostille or both. Ask the receiving office whether they accept a translation made in the United States, and if they do, see our English and Spanish translation services.
Apostilles are only for use outside the United States. California does not issue them for Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands or American Samoa, where the notarization alone is generally enough.
The Secretary of State sets the processing time, and it depends on how the request is submitted. In person at its Sacramento or Los Angeles office, it says requests are typically processed within 30 minutes. By mail, requests go to Sacramento and are processed in the order received; the office posts the date it is currently working on, on its current processing times page. Sending your documents overnight speeds up delivery but not processing.
The time your whole request takes with us also depends on whether the document needs a notarization, a new certified copy or a translation first. Call us with your documents in hand and we will give you a time frame.
Federal documents go to the U.S. Department of State, which charges its own fee per document. Call us with your documents and the destination country, and we will tell you the total before you come in.
An apostille is a certificate that confirms the signature, title and seal of the public official or notary who signed a document, so the document can be used in another country that belongs to the Hague Apostille Convention. It does not confirm what the document says. For California documents, the California Secretary of State issues it.
Start with an original document signed by a California public official, such as a certified copy of a birth certificate, or an original notarized document. Submit it to the California Secretary of State with a cover sheet naming the destination country and the fee, in person in Sacramento or Los Angeles or by mail to Sacramento. We can prepare and submit it for you, and notarize it first if it needs a notarization. The four steps.
Only on a certified copy issued by the county recorder or the California Department of Public Health. The Secretary of State does not accept photocopies, and a California notary cannot certify a copy of a birth, marriage or death certificate.
From the county recorder in the county where the birth was registered, or from the California Department of Public Health. For births in Los Angeles County, the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk has a branch at 14340 W. Sylvan St in Van Nuys, a few minutes from our office, and the county says its certificates can go to the Secretary of State for an apostille.
Yes. Mexico has been a party to the Hague Apostille Convention since 1995, so a California document with a California apostille does not need legalization by the Mexican consulate. The office in Mexico that asked for the document decides whether it also needs a translation and who may translate it, so ask them before you start.
An FBI background check is a federal document, so the apostille comes from the U.S. Department of State Office of Authentications, not from the California Secretary of State. Do not have the results notarized: the Department of State says a notarized original is no longer valid for its apostille. We can roll your fingerprints on ink fingerprint cards for the FBI request itself.
A diploma or transcript is not signed by a public official, so the apostille attaches to a California notarization on it, for example on a statement signed by the school registrar in front of a notary. Ask your school and the receiving institution which version they accept. A California notary cannot certify that a photocopy of a diploma is a true copy.
The California Secretary of State charges $20 for each apostille. Requests made in person also pay a $6 special handling fee for each different official's signature; mail requests do not. Our own charge for preparing and submitting your document, and for any notarization, is separate. Call us with your documents and we will give you the total.
The California Secretary of State says in-person requests at its Sacramento and Los Angeles offices are typically processed within 30 minutes. Mail requests are processed in the order received, and the office posts the date it is currently working on. Overnight shipping speeds up delivery but not processing. Call us for the time frame for your documents.
Yes. The California Secretary of State lets anyone submit an apostille request on behalf of someone else, and the person submitting does not need to be related to anyone named in the document. That is what lets us submit your request for you.
California issues the same apostille whatever the destination. For a country outside the Convention, the apostille is usually not the last step: that country's embassy or consulate decides what else it needs, which often includes authentication by the U.S. Department of State and legalization by the embassy or consulate. Contact the embassy or consulate before you start.
Yes. We are bilingual and can take you through your documents and the apostille process in English or Spanish. We also translate documents between English and Spanish. Esta página en español.
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