Most foreign business registries and freelance or self-employment permits ask for some combination of an FBI Identity History Summary, a birth certificate, a marriage certificate or divorce decree, a diploma, an IRS Form 6166 tax residency certificate, and a power of attorney. Federal documents are apostilled by the US Department of State. State-issued and state-notarised documents are apostilled by the Secretary of State of the state that issued them.

This page is written for the person who is already living abroad, has an appointment at a registry or immigration office, and cannot fly home to sort any of this out. We are a private filing service, not affiliated with the Department of State, any US embassy, or any foreign government.

Which US documents does a foreign business registry actually ask for?

There is no universal list, and any page that gives you one is guessing. The list is set by the office that will receive the file — a commercial register, a chamber of commerce, a tax authority, or an immigration department — and it varies by country, by visa category, and sometimes by the individual case officer. Ask for it in writing, in the local language if that is what they issue, and ask three follow-up questions at the same time:

• Does each document need an apostille, or only some of them?
• Is there an age limit, and is it counted from the document’s issue date or the apostille date?
• Does the translation have to be done by a translator registered in that country, and does it happen before or after the apostille?

Those three answers determine your entire sequence. Everything below is the US side of the work, which is the part you control.

Who apostilles what? The federal and state fork

The United States declared more than one competent authority to the Hague Conference, which is why this trips people up. There is no single national apostille desk. Sending a federal document to a state office, or a state document to Washington, gets it returned unprocessed — and from overseas that round trip costs weeks.

Two further authorities exist that most guides omit. Consular Reports of Birth Abroad and related consular vital records are apostilled by the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Passport Services, Vital Records Section — a different office from the Office of Authentications, which matters if you were born overseas to US parents and are now registering a business in a third country. Documents issued by a US federal court, such as a bankruptcy discharge, are apostilled by the clerks and deputy clerks of that court itself.

Note the state column carefully. It is the state that issued the document, not the state you last lived in and not the state where a relative can drive to the capitol. A Connecticut birth certificate is apostilled in Hartford; a West Virginia one in Charleston. We file in all of them — see Connecticut apostilles filed in Hartford and West Virginia apostilles filed in Charleston for how a single-state filing runs.

Can I sign documents in front of a notary where I live?

A document notarised in front of a notary outside the United States cannot receive an apostille from any US state. A Secretary of State can only certify signatures that are on its own register, and a foreign notary is not. This is the most expensive mistake Americans abroad make, because it is usually discovered after the courier has already crossed an ocean.

If the receiving country will accept a document notarised locally, have it apostilled by the competent authority of the country where that notary holds their commission — not by us, and not by any US office. That is often the cheaper and faster route, and we will tell you so rather than take an order we cannot complete.

If the document genuinely has to carry a US notarisation — some registries insist a power of attorney be executed under US form — the usual answer is the notarial service at a US embassy or consulate. Book early, because appointment availability varies enormously by post, and ask the consular section directly how the resulting document is authenticated for use in the country where you are. Confirm that answer with the embassy before you build a timeline on it; it depends on the document and the receiving authority, and it is not something to assume.

How recent do my documents have to be?

The United States puts no expiry date on an apostille, and no expiry on the certified copy underneath it. Every age limit you are quoted comes from the receiving office abroad. Where one applies, it is normally counted from the date the underlying document was issued rather than the date the apostille was attached — but confirm which, because the difference can be several weeks of your margin.

Work backwards from the fixed date, not forwards from today. Count the days for the issuing agency to produce the document, the days at the apostille authority, international transit in both directions, customs, and then translation in your country of residence. The age limit keeps running the entire time the envelope is in the air. A certificate that is comfortably inside the limit on the day you order it can be outside it on the day you hand it over.

If your appointment cannot be moved and the arithmetic is tight, order the short-lived documents last. Diplomas and naturalization certificates do not go stale. Police checks and tax residency certificates do.

Do I need a translation as well as an apostille?

Almost always, and they are separate instruments. The apostille certifies the signature and seal on the document. It does not say anything about the content and it does not translate it.

Order matters. Translate after the apostille is attached, so the apostille certificate itself is inside the translation. If you translate first, the translator never sees the apostille, and some registries reject the file for exactly that reason.

There is a structural mismatch to be aware of. The United States has no sworn-translator institution. A “certified translation” here means a translator has signed a statement attesting to the accuracy of their work. Many civil-law countries instead require a sworn, court-appointed, or officially registered translator — a person who only exists under their own system. If your destination is one of those, the translation generally has to be commissioned locally after the document arrives. We do not provide translation; budget time for it locally and confirm with the registry whether they maintain a list of accepted translators.

What is the right order of operations?

1. Get the list in writing. From the registry, chamber, or immigration office that will receive the file. Include the age limit and the translation rule in the same request.
2. Check your country’s Hague status. Look it up yourself on the HCCH status table for the Apostille Convention on the day you order. This decides whether you need an apostille at all.
3. Obtain each document in its final, certifiable form. A certified copy from the vital records office or court clerk, a current Identity History Summary from the FBI, Form 6166 from the IRS. Photocopies and scans are not apostillable.
4. Route each one to the correct authority. Federal to the US Department of State on Form DS-4194; state to that state’s Secretary of State. Each agency charges a filing fee, which is included in our flat price of $120 per apostille.
5. Ship once, tracked, to you abroad. Consolidate everything into a single courier shipment rather than sending documents as they are finished.
6. Translate on arrival if your destination requires a local sworn translator. Then present the file at your appointment.

Reverse any two of these and you pay for it. Translating before the apostille leaves the apostille untranslated. Ordering the vital record before checking the registry’s age limit can burn the whole window. Signing a power of attorney before confirming where the notary must be commissioned is how the foreign-notary problem happens.

How do I get an FBI background check without a US Live Scan appointment?

The FBI does not issue apostilles. It produces the Identity History Summary; the US Department of State then apostilles it, and the requester is responsible for moving it from one to the other. Read how the US Department of State apostille process works for what that filing involves.

Three request routes exist: an FBI-approved channeler, the FBI’s online request portal, and direct mail submission. Channelers are the fast route, but they generally rely on fingerprints captured at a US Live Scan location, which is exactly what you do not have. If you are planning a trip home, or a family member is handling it, the channeler route is worth using — we handle results from the major ones, including apostille an FBI background check obtained through DTIS and FBI background checks obtained through Accurate Biometrics. Before you commit to a channeler from overseas, confirm with the Office of Authentications that the copy you will receive is in the form they accept for apostille.

From abroad, the practical route is usually ink fingerprints taken where you are, submitted to the FBI directly or through its portal. Check the current fingerprint card specification and submission address on fbi.gov before you pay anyone, and ask your local police force and the US embassy whether they will take prints for this purpose — many will, some will not, and the answer differs by country.

One thing that causes needless panic: the FBI no longer applies a raised seal to fingerprint-based results. It authenticates them with a watermark and the signature of a division official. The watermark is the authentication. Do not send it back asking for a seal.

What if I have no US address to receive or send from?

Both the issuing agency and the apostille authority need a US return address. You have three workable options. A family member can receive and forward, which is free but slow and depends on them. A mail-forwarding service gives you a stable US address, which is useful anyway if you are running a US entity from overseas. Or you use a filing service: we receive the agency’s output at our US office and send the completed apostille to you abroad in one tracked shipment, which removes the extra domestic hop.

Where a step genuinely requires a human body in the United States — walking a diploma into a university registrar, for example — a family member acting under a power of attorney is the usual answer. Set that power of attorney up before you need it, and make sure it was notarised by a US-commissioned notary.

How do I ship originals internationally without losing them?

This is the part that worries people most, and the honest position is that nobody can guarantee an international delivery date. Customs inspections, strikes, weather, and local last-mile delays are outside everyone’s control, including ours. What you can control is exposure.

• Use a tracked courier, not ordinary post. Door-to-door tracking with a signature is the difference between a delay and a loss.
• Declare the contents as documents of no commercial value. They still may be opened; that is normal and not damage.
• Never ship the only existing copy of something that cannot be reissued. Birth, marriage, and divorce records can be reordered from the issuing state. A Certificate of Naturalization and an original diploma cannot be replaced quickly, and replacing them from overseas is slow.
• Order a fresh certified copy for the apostille. Keep the one in your file drawer. This is cheaper than it sounds and removes the worst-case scenario entirely.
• Photograph every page before it leaves your hands, including the reverse of certified copies and any county seal.
• Build the return leg into your timeline, not just the outbound. The apostille being issued on time is no help if it arrives after your appointment.

Apostille or legalization — which one does my country use?

If your country of residence is a Contracting Party to the Hague Apostille Convention and the Convention is in force between it and the United States, you need an apostille. If it is not, the word apostille does not apply at all: you need an authentication certificate from the US Department of State followed by legalization at that country’s embassy or consulate in the United States. The Office of Authentications issues both kinds of certificate, and the destination country determines which one you get.

Check the status yourself on the day you order, because this list moves. There is a trap in the mechanics: a state becomes a Contracting Party when it deposits its instrument of accession, but the Convention enters into force for it later, after an objection window. In the gap between those two dates, an apostille may not yet be accepted and the legalization chain still applies. If your country has acceded recently, confirm the entry-into-force date on the HCCH status table and confirm with the receiving office which instrument they will accept on your appointment date.

Common reasons an apostille request is rejected

• Wrong authority. A state document sent to the Department of State, or a federal document sent to a Secretary of State. Both come back unprocessed.
• Wrong state. Filed in the state where you live or where your family lives rather than the state that issued the document.
• A foreign notary’s seal. No US authority can certify it.
• A notary commissioned in a different state from the one you filed in. Check the commission, not the address on the letterhead.
• A photocopy instead of a certified copy. Including hospital souvenir birth certificates and scanned PDFs printed at home.
• A county-issued certificate the state will not certify. Some states only apostille their own state-level record; you may need to order the state long-form version first.
• An incomplete or unsigned DS-4194, or a federal submission missing the destination country.
• Altered, laminated, or stapled-through documents. Lamination in particular makes a certified copy unusable.
• Name mismatch between the document, your passport, and the application — common after marriage or naturalisation.
• The wrong instrument. An apostille obtained for a non-Convention country, or an apostille obtained before the Convention entered into force for a recently acceded state.
• Expired by arrival. The document was inside the receiving registry’s age limit when it was apostilled and outside it when it was presented.
• Translation attached in a way the registry rejects, or produced by a translator their system does not recognise.

What to do next

Get the document list and the age limit from your registry in writing, then look your country up on the HCCH status table. Once you know which documents are federal and which are state, you can order them in the right sequence and have each one filed with the correct authority. We file at every state Secretary of State and at the US Department of State for $120 per apostille, all-inclusive, with no separate government-fee surcharge and no per-page add-ons, and we return the completed documents to you wherever you are living. Requirements vary by receiving office, and the authority that receives your file has the final say on what it accepts.