Avoid These Apostille Mistakes

It’s common to need to apostille your documents when traveling to another country. Unfortunately, this can sometimes be tedious, with much governmental red tape to work through. And like with most government rules, they may delay or reject your apostille application if you don’t do everything exactly right.

The Hague Convention of 1961 enabled all member countries to accept the apostille to verify a document’s authenticity. All non-member countries still require embassy legalization.

Avoid These Apostille Mistakes

 At One Source Process, we have been obtaining apostilles and embassy legalization since 2010 and know the ins and outs of the apostille process. We offer a free review of all documents before we submit your apostille application, and we often see some common problems.

If obtaining an apostille on your own or working with us, here are some issues to watch out for and avoid these apostille mistakes

• Notarizing Vital Records

Vital records include birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, and divorce certificates. You must never notarize these documents when requesting an apostille or embassy legalization. The papers will be submitted to the Secretary of State for the apostille.

• Notarizing School Transcripts

The school’s registrar must sign your transcripts before a notary. You can contact a traveling notary to meet you at the school office if they do not have one on-site. The documents will then be submitted to the Secretary of State for the apostille.

• Confusing State and Federal Documents

State documents are submitted to the Secretary of State to obtain the apostille, while federal documents must be sent to the US Department of State in Washington, DC. Submitting your paperwork to the wrong entity will cause them to reject your apostille application.

State documents include:

• Driver’s license
• Birth certificate / Death certificate
• Marriage license / Divorce decree
• School transcripts

Federal documents include:

• FBI background check
• Social Security information
• Federal taxes
• Passport

• Improper Notarization

Some documents require notarization, and it must be done correctly. Mistakes that can delay the apostille process are an expired notary, missing notarized seal or signature, and incorrect notary wording.

The Better Option is to Work with One Source Process

One main benefit you receive when working with One Source Process is that we will review all documents for FREE before we submit your apostille application. We will closely check all paperwork and let you know of any missing or wrong information. And we do this before you submit your payment.

Here is how our process works:

1. You will acquire all the necessary documents
2. Fill out the Order Form here and submit your paperwork to One Source Process
3. We will review everything for FREE
4. When ready, we will send you a payment invoice and timeline for completion
5. We will work with the proper state and federal agencies to quickly obtain your apostille or embassy legalization
6. We will send all documents and the attached apostille to you

That is much easier than trying to do it all on your own. Plus – we offer certified translation of documents and the apostille.

We are available 7 days a week to answer any questions before and during the apostille process. Please Contact Us here to get started.