You do not need to be in the United States. Work out who signed the document: anything signed by a US federal official or a US consular officer is apostilled by the US Department of State, and anything issued by a state or county office, or notarised by a US notary, is apostilled by the Secretary of State of that state. Everything else is logistics.

That sentence is the whole decision, and it is the one expats get wrong. This page is written for a US citizen or green-card holder already living overseas, with a US document to produce and a deadline at a foreign immigration office, registry, university or bank. We are a private apostille service, not part of the Department of State, any embassy or any foreign government.

Who apostilles your document — federal or state?

The Department of State is explicit that documents signed by a US federal official, a US consular officer, or a foreign consul registered with its Office of Protocol require an apostille issued by the Department itself. Documents issued by a state — vital records, court records, anything notarised by a state-commissioned notary — must be certified by the state that issued them. There is no overlap and no discretion.

Two consequences matter for you specifically. First, the relevant state is the state that issued the record, not the state you last lived in and not the state where your parents still live. A birth certificate from Ohio goes to Ohio even if your entire family is now in Texas. Second, a document notarised by a US consular officer at an embassy or consulate is a federally signed document, which is why the consular route is so useful when you are abroad.

Which of my documents need an apostille?

Order only what the receiving office has asked for in writing. Expats routinely apostille documents nobody requested — a Social Security card, a US driver’s licence, an expired passport, a printout of an online bank statement — none of which are apostillable public records in the first place. The table below covers the documents that actually come up.

Why can’t a local notary sign my US document?

This is the mistake that costs expats the most time. A state Secretary of State certifies signatures it holds on file — those of notaries it commissioned and officials it appointed. A notary, notario or solicitor in your country of residence is not on that register, so no US authority can apostille their seal. The filing comes back untouched, and by then you have often paid for translation and courier on a document that was never going to work.

If your receiving party demands a US apostille, do not sign the document in front of a foreign notary. Sign it before a US consular officer at a US embassy or consulate, because a consular officer is a federal official and the document then routes to the US Department of State. Book the notarial appointment early — availability at some posts is thin, and several posts no longer offer every notarial service.

There is a separate, legitimate route: a foreign notary’s act can be apostilled by the competent authority of that country, and that is often perfectly acceptable to a US recipient. It is only when the receiving party insists on a US apostille that the consular route becomes the answer. Our page on what a US embassy can and cannot do about an apostille sets out the distinction in more detail.

How recent does my FBI background check have to be?

The FBI does not print an expiry date and does not set one. The limit comes from whoever is receiving it: an immigration ministry, a consulate, a residency programme, a licensing board. Ask that office directly, get the answer in writing, and count from the date on the report — not from the date you posted it.

Two FBI rules drive everything else. The Bureau applies its watermark and the signature of a division official at the time the request is submitted, and it will not accept requests to authenticate results it has already processed. A summary from last year, or a re-print of one, cannot be retro-authenticated for apostille purposes. You order a new one.

Fingerprint capture is the only step that genuinely favours being in the US, because the electronic option runs through participating US Post Offices. From abroad, your options are a fingerprint card taken locally — at a police station, an approved fingerprinting provider, or in some cases a US embassy that still offers the service — and mailed in, or an FBI-approved Channeler that accepts a card. Check your embassy’s own page before assuming it can print you; many posts stopped. Country-specific expectations vary, and we cover two of the busiest on our pages for FBI background check requirements for a Spanish visa and the FBI background check apostille for Colombia.

What is the correct order of steps from overseas?

1. Get the requirement in writing. Ask the foreign office exactly which document, which format, what age limit, and whether a sworn translation is required and whether it must be done locally. This single email prevents most wasted filings.
2. Check the country in the HCCH status table. Look up Convention 12 on hcch.net and read the entry-into-force column, not just the accession date. A State can appear as a Contracting Party before the Convention is in force for it, and objections between individual States exist — the Convention does not apply between Burundi and Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic or Poland, for example.
3. Order the document from the issuing agency. FBI, IRS, SSA, USCIS, state vital records or the court clerk. The agency charges a filing fee, which is included in our flat price. Have it delivered to a US address you control or trust.
4. Add any intermediate certification the state requires. Some states, New York among them, want a county clerk to certify a court clerk’s or notary’s signature before the Secretary of State will act. Skipping it means one rejected round trip.
5. File with the correct authority. Federal documents go to the Department of State’s Office of Authentications with its request form (currently Form DS-4194 — confirm the current version and mailing instructions on travel.state.gov). State documents go to that state’s Secretary of State.
6. Return-ship the apostilled original. Plan a US return address first, then one tracked international courier leg to you.

What goes wrong when you reverse the order

Order the FBI report before you know the age limit and it may be stale by your appointment, with no way to refresh the authentication. Translate before apostilling and the translation will be missing the apostille page, which many registries treat as an incomplete set. Send a state document to Washington, or a federal one to a Secretary of State, and it is returned unprocessed while your window closes. Notarise abroad before checking, and you start over entirely.

How do I get the original out of the country and back?

Use a tracked courier both ways, not ordinary post, and keep the tracking number attached to the order. Declare the contents as personal documents of no commercial value; customs delays on paper documents are usually short but they are not zero, and neither we nor any courier can guarantee a delivery date on an international leg.

Know what is genuinely irreplaceable before you post it. A certified copy of a birth, marriage or death record can be re-ordered from the state. A court-certified divorce decree can be re-ordered from the clerk. A certificate of naturalization or citizenship cannot be casually replaced — replacement runs through USCIS and takes months, which is a disaster when you are overseas; read how a Certificate of Citizenship apostille works before you put one in an envelope. Scan and photograph everything, front and back, before it leaves your hands.

Do not assume the Department of State will post your completed document to a foreign address. Its published mailing and return-envelope instructions govern, so confirm them on travel.state.gov, and in most cases plan for the document to come back to a US address — a relative, a mail-forwarding service or an agent — before the international leg.

What if my country of residence is not in the Hague Convention?

Then the word apostille does not apply to your situation. The HCCH lists 130 Contracting Parties to the Apostille Convention; re-check the status table yourself, because accessions and objections change. Where the Convention is not in force between the US and your country, the route is consular legalization: the relevant US authority issues an authentication certificate rather than an apostille, and the document is then legalized by that country’s embassy or consulate in the United States. That embassy step happens on US soil, so it needs someone there to present it. An apostille can only be issued by a designated Competent Authority — the HCCH itself issues and verifies nothing.

How do I work backwards from a fixed appointment abroad?

Immigration and registry appointments rarely move. Start from the appointment date and subtract, in order: local translation and any local submission requirement; international courier transit; the US return leg; the apostille filing itself; the issuing agency’s own production time; and, for fingerprints, the time to get a card taken and mailed. Then compare the total against the age limit the receiving office gave you. If the document’s clock is shorter than the pipeline, the document must be ordered late and moved fast, not ordered early “to be safe” — early ordering is what makes documents expire in transit.

Time zones matter at the margins. A courier cut-off in Washington is late evening in Europe and the middle of the night in Asia, so build one working day of slack around every handover rather than assuming same-day pickup.

Common reasons an apostille request is rejected

• Filed with the wrong authority. A state vital record sent to the Department of State, or a federal document sent to a Secretary of State.
• Foreign notarisation. No US authority can certify a notary it did not commission.
• A previously processed FBI result. The FBI will not authenticate results it has already issued, so an old summary cannot be upgraded.
• A photocopy or an informational copy. Vital records marked “not for official use” and plain photocopies are not certified public records.
• Missing intermediate certification. County-level certification skipped where the state requires it.
• Notary defects. Expired commission, missing seal, missing venue, or a commission from a different state than the one you filed in.
• Wrong destination named. The country of use drives whether an apostille or an authentication certificate is issued, so a blank or incorrect destination stalls the filing.
• Stale on arrival. The document was valid when it was ordered and outside the receiving office’s window by the time it was presented.
• Translation attached before apostille. The apostille belongs on the US document; the translation is then made of the complete, apostilled set if the receiving office requires one.

Requirements differ by state, by agency and by destination, and the authority receiving your document has the final say on what it will accept.

What to do next

Email the office abroad that will receive your document and get its exact requirement in writing, then check your country in the HCCH status table. Once you know which document and which authority, we handle the US-side filing for you at $120 per apostille, all-inclusive — no separate government-fee surcharge and no per-page add-ons — including the correspondence, the filing and the return leg to your address overseas. If you want the full picture of how we work with clients outside the country first, read our overview of apostille services for Americans living abroad, then start your order with the document name and your appointment date so we can plan the sequence around it.