Frequently Asked Questions

An apostille is a certification attached to a public document that verifies the authenticity of the signature, seal, or issuing official. It’s required to make U.S. documents legally accepted in countries that are members of the Hague Apostille Convention.

Common examples: birth, death, marriage certificates; court orders; powers of attorney; diplomas and transcripts; corporate filings; affidavits. If you’re unsure, send us a scan and we’ll confirm eligibility.

Only if the document was not originally issued by a government authority or if your destination country requires it. For example, affidavits and powers of attorney usually must be notarized before apostille. Official vital records usually don’t.

Documents issued by state or local authorities (e.g. state vital records) need a state apostille via the Secretary of State. Federal documents (e.g. FBI background checks, federal agency documents) require a federal apostille via the U.S. Department of State.

Then an apostille is not sufficient. The document must go through legalization via U.S. State Department + the destination country’s consulate/embassy. We can handle that full chain for you.

Our typical processing time is 10 to 20 business days after we receive your documents, depending on the issuing authority, their workload, and any additional required steps.

You can send by express mail (e.g. FedEx, UPS, DHL). We’ll provide you the address and packaging instructions once you begin. Overseas clients can ship from anywhere; we handle domestic processing.

Yes. Common reasons: lack of proper authority seal, missing signature, mismatched names, invalid notarization, document issued too long ago, or missing certification. If that happens we’ll notify you and guide you to fix it.

You may cancel before we begin processing. If canceled before processing, we refund your payment minus shipping. Once processing has started, we may not refund (or only partial) depending on how far we’ve progressed.

You can track your order by logging into your account. Once we receive and process your documents, your order status will update to Fulfilled when complete and shipped.

Yes. We offer secure international shipping via trusted carriers at an additional cost (varies by country). You may also provide your own prepaid shipping label if you prefer.

No formal expiration. However, some authorities require documents to be “recent” (often within 3–6 months), so always check with the receiving country or institution.