What is the meaning of Apostille ?
Originally Apostille is a French term means certificate, and it’s used between the Hague Conventions participating countries to facilitates the transfer of documentations between members of the convention.
Thus, apostille authenticates official documents such as Power of attorney, birth certificates, trademarks, etc. to be recognized by foreign countries.
What is the difference between Apostille and authentication (legalization)?
On the other token, there’re several countries aren’t taking part in this convention and to use any document in there, you will need to get it legalized first.
The core difference between the two sides is plain:
e.g.; if I would like to use my Driving license abroad
First case of non-participating countries such as Kuwait,
I will need first to authenticate my license from Secretary of State,
then move to the U.S. Department of State to get their authentication as well and finally go to the Kuwait embassy and follow their directions to use my license in their country.
Moreover, each embassy has its own conditions.
Case (2)
For a participating country like Germany,
All I need to do in this case is to go to the Secretary of my state and obtain the apostille seal attestation on my notarized driving license and vola I can have a ride in Germany, that’s it. Easy.
Basically, that’s the major difference between both of the sides. Now, do you want to know on which side the country you’re traveling to is on?
Visit this page and you’ll have all the details (Legalization Services).
What does Apostille Attestation mean?
Well, Obtaining the Apostille attestation might be sometimes a bit puzzling.
Because first you must follow few instructions regarding authenticating the type of the certificate, you would like to be authenticated and also the State in which the certificate has been issued.
You might in the first place, not be really familiar with this phrase “Apostille attestation” it’s a common phrase used by apostille serving community, it means to confirm the apostille on your document.
Depending on type of document, there might be different procedures,
Documents issued by the U.S. Department of Health, for instance; birth, death and marriage certificates need to have the signature of the record Registrar of the state.
The State Notary Public must notarize others such as corporate documents.
You may view this link to get the full details about notarizing the documents. (Apostille Services).
Apostille services provided by the state may differ also according to the State, for example, few states accept documents in a foreign language, the rest requires a translation of your document to get it attested.
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Some may tell you don’t bother yourself with the translation and offer to translating the documents for you.
What are the legal procedures to obtain the Apostille Seal?
So, as we discussed above, it all depends on the State. We can tell you the headlines, but bear in mind there might be few differences.
- There must be a cover letter containing your name, address, telephone number and an email along with the document.
Most of Secretary of States provides a template for you.
- Must include an ORIGINAL copy of your documents fully notarized if required (depending upon kind of document)
- If sending via mail must enclose a check or money order payable to the Secretary of State. (Usually, they accept those two methods only).
- Fees and processing time are variable according to the State.
Few States may provide expedited service with an additional fee.
- You may provide a self-addressed prepaid envelope for the return if you wish to use express mailing service…. FedEx, UPS, etc.
Nearly all SOSs provides in-person apostille/authentication services, in most cases they complete processing your documents while you’re waiting.
Too many steps and procedures for you to obtain the Apostille?
There’re lots of International Apostille agencies can get it done for you.
Obtaining the apostille Stamp could be much easier and faster if you hired one of the agencies to complete processing of your documents, with expedited and excellent apostille services.
Specially in 2020, COVID-19 created plenty of hurdles to make the authentication, most Secretary of States are closed now due to Corona crisis, mailing time became much longer than usual as well.
That’s nearly most of the people are requesting a third-party agency to finish their authentications, in regard of apostille services and legalization.
It’s faster and safer, as the agency obviously more aware of the legal procedures and the requirements of each state, so you won’t need to be worried about missing any step or required item.
Definitely requires cautiousness when picking an agency to finish your documentations, as there’re plethora of agencies in this field, some are well-trusted, others could be a scam.
In the last few years, we found a considerable number of individuals and corporations getting scammed by obtaining fake Seal.
Exposing those fake agencies isn’t that hard, you just need to have a look at their portfolio, the clients they were dealing with and since when they started to operate their business.
Now, do you have questions regarding apostille?
Contact us on us apostille, we’re always ready to give you a hand when needed, you can have a look at our apostille services from here.
