Under no circumstances should customers detach the Apostille to photocopy the documents.

Documents sent to member nations, completed with an Apostille at the state level, may be submitted directly to the member nation without further action. Documents sent to non-member nations requiring a Certification of the signature of the state's public official at state level, then must be submitted to Authenication Office of the Department of State in Washington, D.C. for Authenication of the State Official's Signature.

The California Secretary of State provides Authenication of public official signature on documents to be used outside the United States of America. The country of destination determines whether the Authentication is an Apostille or Certification.

An Apostille is a certificate issued by the California Secretary of State that proves the authenticity of a public official signature and seal. The Apostille is typically attached to a notarized document as proof of authentication when that document is being sent to a country which abides by the Hague Convention.

The Apostille certification is from the office of the Secretary of State, after reviewing the document's signature and validating its legitimacy. It is an official state government certification. It is a full 8 1/2" x 11" page certificate, not simply a seal. The Apostille is permanently attached, and you cannot remove the staples or separate it from your original document.

All Apostille certificates will look the same for all the countries you request an Apostille for. There is no difference between an Apostille which will be used for Mexico and an Apostille for Russia. Similarly, there is no difference between an Apostille for a Birth Certificate and an Apostille for a Marriage Certificate, or a Power of Attorney or a Court Divorce Decree. The Apostille verbiage made change due to Destination County for Apostille the appearance and format will not change. However, a few countries have a different requirement other than an Apostille, and your document would receive a Legalization Certificate instead.

Documents notarize by Performance Mobile Notary and need Orange County Public official authenicated will normally take between 1 to 2 business days to get an Apostille attached to it. Documents notarize by different notaries or mistakes, by outside of OrangeCounty, Public Officials signatures outside of Orange County may take longer, depending on what Southern California County they are register with.