What is an Apostille?
An Apostille attest to the legal status of Notary Public and public officials, who have authenticated or notarized documents to be used for business and/or personal use in international countries.

All Secretary of State processing times differ from one another. For New Jersey Apostille requests for expedited service processing time is 7-10 business days. However, we have found because we submit a surplus of apostille requests, we are receiving our customers documents back in 3 – 4 business days.

All Personal (public) and Business documents will require a notarization from a notary public which is then sent to a competent Authority at the Secretary of State who issues the Apostille. If you have recordable documents such as an FBI Background, we will need to work with the state department in Washington, DC to obtain an Apostille.

The most common documents that we have assisted our clients with are: All vital records (birth, death, marriage, and divorce decrees), College/University/High School Transcripts, Power of Attorneys (General, Durable), Real Estate Documents, Authorization Requests, FBI Background Checks, Certificate of Manufacturer, Corporate Documents, Government Issued IDs (Passports, Drivers Licenses, Green Cards) to name a few.

For you not to be overwhelmed with a nerdy response. We will break it down into two simplistic explanations. Depending on the country of use (where the document will be used) will depend on the process that we must follow. 

– Apostille Only

For all personal and business public documents going to countries that are partied to the Hague convention, excluding FBI Background Checks will require for us to go to Secretary of State to obtain the apostille. You can learn more here on what Hague Convention is and the current countries that are partied to the convention. 

– Authentications & Legalizations

Is like the Apostille process, in most cases where the country of intent is NOT partied to the Hague convention, may require notarization from a notary public, followed by certification from the Secretary of State, then Authentication from Washington, D.C finally rounding out the process with the Embassy or Consulate legalizing the document to be used in their country. You can learn more here.