The issuing agency decides the route, not the document. A document issued by a U.S. federal agency is apostilled by the Department of State’s Office of Authentications. A document issued by a state office — or signed before a notary — is apostilled by the Secretary of State of that state. Mixing the two is the most expensive filing error a company makes.

Why does federal versus state matter so much?

Because a competent authority can only certify signatures it holds on file. The United States, like every Contracting Party to the 1961 Hague Convention, has formally designated who may issue apostilles under Article 6, and that designation is published by the HCCH. The Department of State’s Office of Authentications covers documents issued by federal agencies. State, District of Columbia and other U.S. jurisdiction documents go to the competent authority in that jurisdiction — in practice, the Secretary of State.

Nobody in either office will forward a misdirected package to the other. It comes back to you, and if you are working to a registry deadline in Santiago or a tender submission in Riyadh, that round trip is the whole problem.

The three federal routes, not one

Companies with litigation history or foreign-born executives hit this. The United States has designated more than one federal competent authority:

• Office of Authentications, U.S. Department of State — documents issued by federal agencies. This is the route for the overwhelming majority of corporate federal paperwork.
• Clerks and Deputy Clerks of U.S. federal courts — apostilles on documents issued by those courts. A certified federal court judgment or exemplified record is apostilled by the clerk of that court, not by the Office of Authentications.
• Bureau of Consular Affairs, Passport Services, Vital Records Section — Consular Reports of Birth, Death and Marriage. If a director was born to U.S. parents abroad and you need the CRBA for a beneficial-ownership filing, it does not go through Authentications.

Which of your documents actually need an apostille?

Only the ones a foreign body will rely on: a company registry, a bank’s onboarding team, a customs or health authority, a tender board, a patent or trademark office, or a local notary drafting the incorporation deed. Ask the receiving institution for its list in writing before you order anything. Documents used only inside the United States never need one, and companies routinely over-order — an internal operating agreement, an EIN confirmation letter nobody asked for, or a photocopy of a lease are common wasted spend.

Confirm the issuing agency and current requirements for any federal certificate directly with that agency, and read the Department of State’s own instructions on the Office of Authentications page before you post anything. Requirements differ by jurisdiction and the receiving authority abroad always has the last word on what it will accept.

What does an apostille on a notarized contract actually certify?

The signature, seal and capacity of the notary. Nothing more. When a Secretary of State apostilles your distribution agreement or your board resolution, the certificate confirms that a named person was a commissioned notary in that state on that date and that the signature is genuine. It does not confirm that the signer was an authorized officer, that the board actually passed the resolution, or that the agreement is enforceable where you are filing it.

If a foreign registry queries the substance of a contract after you have apostilled it, the apostille will not help you. It never vouched for the contents. Supporting evidence of signing authority — certified bylaws, an incumbency certificate, a certified extract of the register — has to be obtained and apostilled as its own document.

How recent does your FBI background check have to be?

Neither the FBI nor the Department of State publishes an expiry for an Identity History Summary. Any deadline you have been given came from the destination: a foreign immigration office, a licensing body, a bank, or the employer sponsoring a work permit for your expatriate manager. Get that window in writing, then work backwards.

Two mechanical facts drive the planning. First, the FBI states it will not accept requests to authenticate results it has already processed — a report deemed stale cannot be refreshed, it has to be re-run from fingerprints. Second, the FBI no longer places its seal on Order 556-73 fingerprint search results; it authenticates them with the FBI watermark and the signature of a division official. Reviewers at a foreign consulate who are hunting for an embossed seal sometimes flag this incorrectly, and the fix is to point them at the FBI’s own published statement rather than re-order.

Most corporate files move faster through an FBI-approved channeler than through a direct submission. The route changes the paperwork you present, so match your guide to the provider: see our directory of FBI-approved channelers, or the specific instructions for an FBI report produced through First Advantage Biometrics (PrintScan), results issued through Telos ID / IDVetting, and reports from National Credit Reporting (National Background Information).

In what order should you do this?

1. Get the receiving party’s list. Ask the foreign registry, bank or tender board which documents it wants, whether it requires a certified translation, and whether it imposes a recency window. Everything below is sequenced off that answer.
2. Sort every document by issuer. Federal agency, state office, federal court, or private document needing a notary. Write the competent authority next to each line item. This is the step companies skip, and it is the one that causes returns.
3. Order certified originals from the issuing agency. Certificates of good standing and certified articles come from the state filing office; FDA, IRS, USPTO and FBI documents come from those agencies directly. A photocopy you made is not a certified copy.
4. Notarize the private documents last, in the right state. The resolution, the power of attorney and the contract must be signed before a notary commissioned in the state whose Secretary of State will apostille them. Some states additionally require a county clerk to certify the notary’s commission first — check that state’s Secretary of State instructions before you book the signing.
5. File with the correct competent authority. Federal certificates to the Office of Authentications with the Department of State’s request form, naming the country of intended use; state and notarized documents to the relevant Secretary of State. Keep the two batches physically separate.
6. Verify the destination before shipping. Confirm on the HCCH status table that the Convention is in force between the United States and the destination, and that no objection applies.

What goes wrong when the order is reversed

Notarizing before you know the filing state means the apostille comes from a Secretary of State who may not be the one the registry expects. Ordering a certificate of good standing at the start of a three-month project means it is already aged when the registry finally reads it. Shipping to a consulate before checking Hague status means you paid for an apostille where a legalization chain was required, or the reverse. And apostilling a document before you have confirmed the translation requirement often means translating afterwards — which, in some jurisdictions, requires the translation to be notarized and apostilled too.

Does the destination country change anything?

Yes, in three ways. First, the destination decides the certificate type: the Department of State issues an apostille for countries in the 1961 Convention and an authentication certificate for countries outside it, with onward consular legalization. Second, both the origin and destination states must appear on the HCCH status table for the Convention to operate between them. Third — and this is the trap nobody warns you about — when a country joins by accession, existing members may object, and the Convention then does not apply between that pair. The status table currently records objections raised against the accession of Bangladesh and against the accession of Burundi. Objections can also be withdrawn; Germany withdrew its objection to Azerbaijan’s accession, and the status table shows the resulting entry-into-force date.

We do not publish per-country entry-into-force dates here, because the table changes and a date copied into an article goes stale. Read your destination’s own row on the HCCH status table before you commit to a route.

Common reasons an apostille request is rejected

• Wrong competent authority. A federal certificate sent to a state Secretary of State, or a notarized contract sent to the Office of Authentications. Returned, not forwarded.
• Federal court record sent to the Department of State. It belongs to the clerk of the issuing court.
• An uncertified photocopy. No seal, no authorized signature, no notarial act — nothing for the authority to certify against.
• Asking the FBI to re-authenticate an old result. The FBI states those requests are not accepted.
• Notary commissioned in a different state from the one you filed with. Each Secretary of State only holds its own notaries’ records.
• Missing county clerk certification where the state requires that intermediate step for notarized documents.
• Country of intended use left blank on the federal request form — the office cannot decide between an apostille and an authentication certificate without it.
• Incomplete notarial wording. Missing venue, missing commission expiry, or a jurat used where an acknowledgment was needed.
• Destination not covered. The country is not a Contracting Party, or an objection is in force against it.
• Document assembled out of order, so the translation, the exhibit or the attachment was added after the apostille was affixed.

Can you bundle corporate documents together?

Yes, where they share a competent authority. A certificate of good standing, certified articles and a notarized board resolution from the same state can travel as one submission to that Secretary of State. Several federal certificates can go to the Office of Authentications as one package. Bundling reduces shipping legs and the number of handoffs where something can be lost, but it does not merge the paperwork: each document receives its own apostille certificate, numbered and dated separately.

Where a file splits across both the federal and state routes — say an FDA Certificate to Foreign Government plus a Delaware good standing certificate plus a notarized distribution agreement — plan on two parallel tracks that converge only when you ship to the destination. The slowest track sets your date, so start the federal one first.

Our price is $120 per apostille, all-inclusive: filing fees at the competent authority are covered, with no per-page add-ons and no separate government-fee surcharge, whether the document routes federally or through a state.

Your next step

Build the routing list before you order a single certificate. Put every document on one line with three columns: who issued it, which competent authority apostilles it, and whether it needs a notary first. Send that list to the receiving registry or bank for confirmation. Once it comes back approved, start the federal items immediately and hold the dated state certificates until the end — then start an order with us and we will run both tracks to the correct authority for each document.