Apostille Services by State & Document
Apostille services are organised here the way the paperwork actually works: by the official who signed your document. Pick the state that issued or notarized it, or pick a document type below. FBI background checks are the exception — they are federal, and go to the FBI background check apostille page instead.
Start with who signed the document
An apostille is a certificate that authenticates the signature on a document, not its contents. That single fact decides everything else: the authority that can issue your apostille is the one that holds the signing official's specimen signature on file. Nothing else — not your address, not the country you are filing in, not where the document is going — changes the answer.
| Document | Who apostilles it | Where to go |
|---|---|---|
| Birth, marriage, divorce, death certificate | The issuing state | The state or document links below |
| Diploma, transcript, corporate record | The state where it is notarized or certified | Your state page |
| Power of attorney, affidavit, any notarized document | The notary's state | Notarized documents |
| FBI Identity History Summary | U.S. Department of State (federal) | FBI background check apostille |
Two lanes run at very different speeds, and the difference is worth understanding before you choose. A state-issued original — a birth certificate, a court record — has to travel: the issuing state apostilles the certified original, so the physical document goes to that state and comes back. A notarized true copy does not. Because the apostille authenticates the notary's signature, the notarization can happen wherever our notary is, which is why that lane turns around in about 24 business hours while a mailed vital record can take weeks.
Every state page below publishes that state's own filing office, its real processing time, and whether it offers expedited service at all — because several do not, and a site-wide promise would be false in those states.
By document type
- Birth Certificate apostille
- Marriage Certificate apostille
- Divorce Decree apostille
- Death Certificate apostille
By state
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Puerto Rico
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Common questions before you pick a page
Do I need a state apostille or a federal apostille?
It depends on who signed the document, not on where you live. A document signed by a state or county official — a birth certificate, a marriage licence, a diploma, a notarized power of attorney — is apostilled by that state's Secretary of State. A document signed by a federal agency — most commonly an FBI Identity History Summary, but also IRS and USDA paperwork — is apostilled only by the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. Sending a federal document to a state office, or the reverse, is the single most common reason an apostille request comes back rejected.
Which state apostilles my document?
The state whose official signed it. A birth certificate issued by Ohio is apostilled by Ohio, even if you now live in Texas and are filing in Spain. For a notarized document you have a choice, because the signing official is the notary — so the document can be notarized in whichever state you are in, and apostilled there.
Can you apostille a photocopy instead of the original?
For a vital record, no — the issuing state apostilles a certified original, so the original has to be shipped. For most other documents there is a legitimate route: a notary certifies a true copy of your document, and the notary's signature is what carries the apostille. That is the lane that lets diplomas, passports and corporate records be apostilled without surrendering the original.
How long does a state apostille take?
It varies more than most people expect — from about one business day in states where we file in person to several weeks in states that only accept mail and offer no expedited tier. Each state page below publishes that state's own processing time rather than a single site-wide number.