Who issues a Texas birth certificate apostille?

The Texas Secretary of State in Austin issues the apostille. You first obtain a certified copy of the birth record from Texas DSHS Vital Statistics or the local registrar in the county of birth, then that certified copy is filed with the Secretary of State, which attaches the apostille certificate to it. Texas cannot apostille another state’s record.

That two-agency split is the part most people get wrong. DSHS produces the record. The Secretary of State certifies that the record is genuinely a Texas public record. Neither office does the other’s job, and skipping straight to Austin with the wrong kind of copy is the most common way a request stalls.

The federal government is not involved when a Texas-issued birth certificate is going to a Hague Convention country. The U.S. Department of State Office of Authentications handles documents issued by federal agencies — FBI identity history summaries, Consular Reports of Birth Abroad, naturalization certificates. State-issued vital records stay with the state.

What you need before the request is filed: at-a-glance checklist

• Destination country identified. This decides whether you get an apostille or an authentication certificate. Check the HCCH status table for the Apostille Convention and read the entry-into-force column, not just the list of names.
• A certified copy of the Texas birth record, issued by DSHS Vital Statistics or the county local registrar. Not a hospital souvenir certificate, not a photocopy, not a scan you printed.
• “Apostille” given as the reason for the request when you order the certified copy. DSHS specifically instructs applicants to do this so the copy is issued in the form the Secretary of State will accept.
• The exact name spelling the receiving authority expects. A registry abroad that has your name with an accent, a second surname, or a maiden name will compare it against the certificate character by character.
• No notarization. A certified vital record is already certified by a registrar. Adding a notary seal to a photocopy creates a different document type and usually causes a rejection.
• Document count under the cap if you are filing in person by appointment — the Secretary of State limits appointment transactions to ten documents per person, company or transaction.

The single most expensive mistake is ordering a plain certified copy “for personal records” instead of telling the vital records office it is going abroad for an apostille. You will not usually discover the problem until the Secretary of State returns the packet, and by then you have lost the order time, the mailing time, and the filing time — and you still have to start over at DSHS.

Which Texas birth certificate copies qualify for an apostille?

The Secretary of State apostilles Texas public records and Texas notarized documents. A birth certificate falls in the first category, which means the certification on the document has to come from the registrar who holds the record.

If you were born in Texas but now live elsewhere, none of this changes — the apostille still comes from Austin. Our apostille services in Houston and apostille process for Dallas residents pages cover the local ordering logistics, and if you are unsure which jurisdiction owns your document at all, start with which authority issues your apostille by location.

How do you apostille a Texas birth certificate, step by step?

1. Confirm the destination country’s status. Look the country up on the HCCH status table. A Contracting Party listing is not enough on its own — check that the Convention has actually entered into force, and that no objection blocks it between that country and the United States. Non-Hague destinations take a different route entirely.
2. Order the certified copy. Request it from Texas DSHS Vital Statistics or from the local registrar in the county where the birth was recorded. State that the reason for the request is an apostille. The issuing office charges a fee for the copy, which is included in our flat price when we handle the order.
3. Inspect the copy when it arrives. Check the registrar’s signature and seal, the spelling of every name, the date and county of birth, and the parents’ names. Any discrepancy against the identity documents you are presenting abroad has to be corrected at DSHS before you file, not after.
4. File with the Texas Secretary of State. The authentications function in Austin accepts documents by mail, by walk-in, and by appointment booked online. Appointment service runs on set weekdays and is capped at ten documents per transaction. A state filing fee applies, and it is covered by our flat price.
5. Receive the certified copy with the apostille attached. The apostille is physically affixed to your certified copy. Do not separate them, do not laminate them, and do not photocopy the pair and send the copy abroad.
6. Arrange translation if the destination requires it. Texas does not require a translation to issue the apostille. Countries such as Spain and Colombia routinely require the certificate and the apostille to be translated by a translator they recognize — translate after the apostille is attached, never before.

Where exactly is it filed, and what does Texas send back?

Filing happens with the Texas Secretary of State’s authentications unit in Austin. Three intake channels exist: mail, walk-in, and an online-booked appointment. The Secretary of State introduced appointments specifically to cut the wait times and queues that walk-in service produced, and appointments run on designated days of the week. Confirm the current appointment days and the correct mailing address on the Secretary of State’s own site before you send anything — do not take an address from a private company’s page.

What comes back is your original certified birth certificate with an apostille certificate attached to it. There is no separate standalone apostille document, no digital-only version for this record type, and no second certified copy. Whatever you submitted is what returns, upgraded.

If your destination is not a Hague party, Texas issues an authentication certificate instead. That is not a failure — it is the correct output for that route. The document then continues to the U.S. Department of State and finally to the destination country’s embassy or consulate for legalization, as described in the Department of State’s guidance on apostille and authentication requirements.

How long does a Texas birth certificate apostille take?

Total elapsed time is the sum of three separate clocks, and only the middle one belongs to the Secretary of State. Published turnaround at the authentications unit shifts with volume, so check the current posted timeframe on the Secretary of State’s site rather than relying on a figure copied from a blog.

Filing in person on an appointment day is the fastest of the three intake channels, which is why a courier-based filing beats mailing your certificate to Austin and waiting for it to surface in the mail queue. Non-Hague destinations add an unpredictable consular stage that no filer controls.

Common reasons a Texas apostille request is rejected

• The submission is not a certified copy. A photocopy, a scan, a printed PDF, or a notarized photocopy is not the public record. DSHS’s instruction is to obtain a certified copy specifically.
• The record was not issued by Texas. An out-of-state or foreign birth certificate has to go to its own issuing jurisdiction. Texas has no authority over another state’s vital records.
• The wrong certificate type was requested for the destination. Asking for an apostille when the country is outside the Convention, or an authentication when the country is inside it, sends the document back.
• The ten-document appointment cap was exceeded. Families filing for several children at once hit this more often than they expect.
• The reason for the request was never stated as “Apostille.” DSHS issues copies differently depending on intended use; the wrong intake reason can produce a copy the Secretary of State will not process.
• Name mismatch against the receiving authority’s file. Texas will apostille the certificate anyway — the rejection happens abroad, which is far worse. Reconcile spellings, accents and second surnames before you file.
• Certificate considered too old by the receiving authority. Texas publishes no age limit, but foreign registries frequently demand a recently issued copy. Spain and Colombia are the destinations where clients hit this most often.
• Translation done before the apostille. If the translator worked from the certificate alone, the apostille text is untranslated and the packet is incomplete.
• The document was altered. Lamination, staples through the seal, highlighting or handwritten notes on a certified vital record can void it.

What about other states and other document types?

The governing rule is jurisdictional, not geographic: the apostille comes from the authority that issued the record. If you hold birth certificates from several states — common for families relocating together — each one goes to its own state’s competent authority, and they cannot be bundled. A New Mexico apostille is filed in Santa Fe, for instance, no matter where the holder lives now.

Texas marriage and divorce records follow a different path from birth records: certified marriage records and divorce decrees come from the county clerk or district clerk where the event occurred, not from DSHS, before going to the Secretary of State. Documents you sign yourself — consents, affidavits, school authorizations — are the notarized-document category instead, and the requirements differ; see our guide to apostilles for powers of attorney and notarized documents.

One treaty nuance worth knowing: membership in the Convention is not automatically bilateral. A state may object to another state’s accession, in which case the apostille route does not operate between them. The HCCH has recorded exactly this — Belgium objected to the Kyrgyz Republic’s accession in 2011, and the Convention only entered into force between the two on 11 June 2025 once the objection was withdrawn. Always read the notifications attached to a country’s entry, not just the headline count of 130 Contracting Parties. Requirements vary by receiving institution, and the authority receiving your document has the final say on what it will accept.

Your next step

Pull out your certified copy and check three things right now: that it carries a registrar’s seal and signature, that every name matches the identity document you will present abroad, and that the destination country appears on the HCCH status table with the Convention actually in force. If all three check out, the document is ready to file in Austin. If the copy is old, damaged, or was never issued as a certified record, order a fresh one from DSHS with “Apostille” as the stated reason before anything else happens.

When you are ready, we order the certified copy, file it with the Texas Secretary of State, and return it to you with the apostille attached — $120 per apostille, all-inclusive, with no separate government-fee surcharge and no per-page add-ons. Tell us the destination country when you start the order, because that single detail determines whether we file for an apostille or an authentication certificate.