What an apostille is
When a document issued in one country is presented to an authority in another country, that authority has no direct way to confirm the signature or seal on it is real. An apostille solves this problem. It is a standardized certificate, attached to the document by a designated government authority, that verifies the document is genuine and was properly issued. Once attached, the receiving country accepts the document without additional review, translation of the certificate, or further certification.
An apostille does not certify the content of the underlying document is true. It certifies only that the signature, seal, or stamp on the document belongs to the official or agency that issued it. Whether the document is an FBI background check, an IRS letter, or an FDA certificate, the apostille speaks to its authenticity, not to what the document says.
The Hague Convention
The apostille system exists because of an international treaty formally known as the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, generally called the Hague Apostille Convention. It was adopted in 1961 and the United States has been a member since 1981. Countries that join the treaty agree to accept each other's apostilles as sufficient proof of authenticity, replacing the older and slower chain legalization process that required sign off from multiple government offices and an embassy.
Well over one hundred countries and territories now belong to the convention, including most of Europe, much of Latin America, and countries such as Japan, Australia, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. See our full list of Hague Convention member countries to check whether your destination country participates. Membership occasionally changes as new countries join, so it is worth confirming before you submit a document.
How an apostille works
An apostille is issued by a specific government authority in the country where the document originated, not by the country where it will be used. In the United States, that authority is either a state office or the federal government, depending on who issued the underlying document. The apostille is typically a separate page or certificate physically attached to the document, containing standardized fields such as the country of origin, the name of the signing official, the capacity in which they signed, the seal of the issuing authority, and a registration number.
Because the format is standardized under the treaty, an official in a receiving country can recognize an apostille from any member country even without reading the underlying document's language. This is what allows the process to be a single step for Hague member destinations, compared to the multi step legalization chain still required elsewhere.
Apostille vs authentication
Whether your document receives an apostille or something else depends entirely on the destination country. If the destination country belongs to the Hague Convention, your document receives an apostille and no further step is needed. The receiving country accepts it as issued.
If the destination country has not joined the Hague Convention, the U.S. Department of State issues an authentication certificate instead of an apostille. An authentication confirms the same underlying fact, that the signature or seal is genuine, but the receiving country still requires an additional legalization stamp from its own embassy or consulate before the document is accepted. We complete the federal authentication step and ship the document back to you, and you complete the embassy step afterward. Read a full comparison on our apostille vs authentication page, and learn what that final step involves on our embassy legalization page.
Federal office vs state office
The United States does not have a single national apostille office. Instead, which office is authorized to apostille or authenticate a document depends on who issued the document in the first place.
- Documents issued by a federal agency, such as an FBI background check, an IRS document or letter, an FDA certificate, a USDA or APHIS certificate, a USPTO patent or trademark document, a Social Security letter, a federal court document, or a document notarized by a federal or consular officer, must go through the U.S. Department of State, Office of Authentications in Washington, DC. A state office has no authority over documents issued by a federal agency.
- Documents issued at the state or county level, such as a birth certificate, a marriage certificate, a state notarized Power of Attorney, or a diploma from a state chartered school, go through that state's own apostille process instead. That is a separate service from the one we offer.
See our full breakdown on the state apostille vs federal apostille page for how to identify which category your document falls into, and check document requirements for what your document needs before submission.
Getting an apostille for a federal document
If your document is federal and your destination country is a Hague member, we hand deliver your document in person to the U.S. Department of State, Office of Authentications in Washington, DC and ship the apostilled document back to you. Submitting by mail commonly takes 5 to 6 weeks. Hand delivering it in person is what allows most orders to be completed in about a week once the document reaches us. See what we apostille, pricing, and how the process works for more detail, or contact us with questions about a specific document. We are not affiliated with any government agency, and we offer this as a paid document handling service.