Which federal documents can be apostilled?

Any document issued by a U.S. federal agency and signed by a federal official can be apostilled — by the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., and only by them. That covers FBI Identity History Summaries, IRS Form 6166, National Archives copies of a DD-214, signed Social Security letters, federal court records, USDA and FDA export certificates, USPTO certified copies, and Consular Reports of Birth Abroad.

The list matters less than the test behind it. The Department of State keeps specimen signatures for authorized federal officials on file. If the signature on your document matches one of those, the apostille can be issued. If it does not — because the document is a printout, a photocopy, or a form signed by nobody — the request fails no matter how federal the letterhead looks.

How do federal documents differ from state documents?

The difference is jurisdictional, not cosmetic. A birth certificate, a marriage license, a state court judgment, a corporate good-standing certificate and anything touched by a notary public are all state documents. They are apostilled by the Secretary of State of the state that issued them, and in some states they pass through a county clerk first.

Federal documents skip all of that. There is no county step, no state step, and no notary step. The document goes from the issuing federal agency straight to the Office of Authentications. Adding a notary to a federal document does not strengthen it — it converts the submission into a state matter, because what a notary signs is certified by a county clerk and then by a state Secretary of State. Plenty of otherwise valid requests die exactly this way.

What must be true before the Department of State will apostille your document?

Run this checklist before anything is mailed:

• The document is an original issued by the agency, not a photocopy, scan or home printout.
• It bears an ink or embossed seal and the signature of a named federal official, with that official’s title printed.
• It has not been notarized and has not been certified by any county or state office.
• The document is current enough for the receiving authority — many foreign offices reject federal records issued more than three or six months earlier, and that clock is set abroad, not in Washington.
• You know the destination country, because the apostille names it and it cannot be changed afterwards.
• The destination is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention. Confirm on the HCCH status table for the Apostille Convention.

The single most common federal apostille failure is submitting a document that no federal official ever signed. A benefit letter printed from an online account, a downloaded court PDF, a scanned copy of a certificate — none of these carry a signature the Department of State can match against its records. Get the agency to reissue a signed, sealed original first.

Which agency issues each federal document?

How long does the whole thing take?

Two clocks run, and the one people forget is the first. Getting a certified original out of the IRS or the National Archives takes far longer than getting a certified copy from a court clerk. The Department of State publishes its own current processing time for authentications on travel.state.gov, and it moves with volume — check it on the day you plan to file rather than trusting any figure written on a blog, including this one.

Can IRS Form 6166 and other IRS records be apostilled?

Yes, and Form 6166 is the most requested IRS apostille by a wide margin. It certifies that you or your company were a U.S. resident for tax purposes in a given year, and foreign tax authorities require it before granting treaty benefits or reduced withholding.

You do not order Form 6166 directly. You file IRS Form 8802, Application for United States Residency Certification, naming each country and each tax year you need covered. The IRS then issues Form 6166 on letterhead signed by an IRS field director. That signature is what the Department of State apostilles.

Two things go wrong repeatedly. First, applicants request the wrong year — the certificate must cover the tax year the foreign authority is asking about, not the current one. Second, they omit a country from the application and then need a second certificate for it, restarting the wait. Read the Form 8802 instructions in full before filing; the IRS also flags in those instructions which countries expect an apostille.

Can a DD-214 or other military record be apostilled?

Yes — but only the right copy. Veterans typically hold two versions of a DD-214, and they take opposite routes.

A copy certified by the National Personnel Records Center, part of the National Archives, is a federal document and goes to the Department of State. Request it through eVetRecs or with Standard Form 180 via the National Archives military service records service. Next of kin can request records for a deceased veteran with proof of death and relationship.

A copy recorded with a county recorder — which many veterans do at discharge for local benefits — is certified by a county official and is therefore a state document. That one goes to the Secretary of State of that county’s state instead. Sending it to Washington guarantees a return trip. Other service records, including DD Form 256 discharge certificates and NGB-22 National Guard reports, follow the same logic: check whose seal is on the copy you are holding.

Can a Social Security letter be apostilled?

Signed SSA letters can be. Retirement visa programs across Latin America and Europe ask for proof of a lifetime pension, and the Social Security benefit verification letter is the standard evidence.

The problem is the version most people bring. A letter downloaded from a my Social Security account is unsigned and carries no official’s name, which leaves the Department of State nothing to authenticate. The workable approach is to request the letter through an SSA field office so it is issued with an authorized official’s signature. The SSA explains the request options on its benefit verification letter page.

Different consulates accept different things, so ask the receiving office which version it will take before you spend weeks on the wrong one. We walk through one country’s requirements in detail in our guide to apostilling a Social Security benefit letter for a Costa Rica pensionado visa, and the pattern there applies to most pension-based residency programs.

Can an FBI background check be apostilled?

Yes, and it is the single most apostilled federal document in the country. Employers, immigration authorities and residency programs abroad all ask for an FBI Identity History Summary with an apostille attached.

You can obtain the report directly from the FBI or through an FBI-approved channeler, which is usually faster. What matters for the apostille is that the report you submit carries the required official signature — some channeler outputs do, some do not, and the difference decides whether the request succeeds. We have channeler-specific walkthroughs covering an FBI background check from National Credit Reporting, a First Advantage Biometrics (PrintScan) report, a Telos ID / IDVetting report, a TRP Associates report and a VetConnex report.

Can federal court documents be apostilled?

Yes. Judgments, divorce decrees issued by federal courts, bankruptcy discharge orders, certified dockets, injunctions and naturalization records held by a court are all apostillable once the clerk of that court certifies them under seal.

A PACER printout is not a certified copy. Order the certified version from the clerk’s office of the specific district, bankruptcy or appellate court that issued the record, then send it to the Department of State. Note the split: federal court records are federal, state court records are not. A divorce decree from a county superior court goes to that state’s Secretary of State, even though the paperwork can look almost identical.

Can USDA and FDA certificates be apostilled?

Yes, and for exporters this is routine rather than exceptional. Foreign regulators will not clear regulated goods at the border without an authenticated certificate from the U.S. agency that oversees the product.

The FDA issues export certificates including the Certificate to Foreign Government and certificates of free sale, covering drugs, medical devices, food and cosmetics depending on the product center handling the request. The USDA, primarily through APHIS, issues export health certificates and phytosanitary certificates for animal products, live animals and plant material.

The recurring failure here is a mismatch: the importing regulator asked for one certificate type and the exporter obtained another. Get the exact certificate name in writing from the importer’s regulator before applying, and watch validity windows — export certificates frequently expire against the shipment date, and an expired certificate cannot be rescued by an apostille.

Can USPTO patent and trademark documents be apostilled?

Yes. Certified copies of issued patents, patent applications, assignment records and trademark registration certificates are all apostillable once the USPTO issues them under its official seal. Foreign patent offices ask for these when a priority claim needs proving, and companies need them when recording an assignment or licensing agreement abroad.

Order the certified copy from the USPTO rather than printing from Patent Center or TSDR. A printed page has no seal and no signature, and the Department of State cannot act on it. If you are filing in several countries, order the certified copies at once — the apostille is country-specific, so each destination needs its own.

Can naturalization and citizenship certificates be apostilled?

This is the most misunderstood category on the list, and it needs care.

A Certificate of Naturalization and a Certificate of Citizenship both carry a printed warning that copying, printing or photographing them without lawful authority is a federal offense. USCIS does not issue duplicate originals on demand, and the original is your proof of status — you do not want it circulating through the mail. For those reasons the certificate itself is generally not the document submitted for apostille.

The practical route is to obtain a certified copy of the underlying naturalization record from USCIS through its records request channels, and apostille that instead. Because the accepted route depends on the record, when it was created and what the foreign authority will take, confirm the current procedure with USCIS and with the Department of State’s Office of Authentications before ordering anything. If the receiving office abroad has told you exactly what it wants, send us that wording and we will confirm the route before you commit.

Can a Consular Report of Birth Abroad be apostilled?

Yes. A CRBA (Form FS-240) records the birth of a U.S. citizen outside the United States and functions as that person’s birth certificate. It is a federal document because a consular officer issued it, so it goes to the Department of State — never to a state Secretary of State, and never to the embassy where it was originally issued.

Order a fresh certified copy from the Department of State’s Vital Records Section rather than sending a decades-old family copy, which is often worn, laminated or a plain photocopy. Older legacy forms — FS-545 and DS-1350 — are no longer issued, though previously issued copies remain valid records; if yours is one of these, request a current FS-240 replacement first.

How do you get a federal document apostilled?

1. Confirm who signed it. Look for a federal seal and a named federal official with a printed title. Federal signature means Washington; state or county signature means that state’s Secretary of State.
2. Order a certified original from the issuing agency. The IRS via Form 8802, the National Archives for military records, the clerk of court for federal court records, USCIS for immigration records, the Vital Records Section for a CRBA. Start this first — it is the longest leg.
3. Verify the destination country’s treaty status. Check the HCCH status table. Hague members get an apostille; everyone else needs authentication plus embassy legalization, which is a different and slower process.
4. Prepare the submission. Complete Form DS-4194 naming the destination country, leave the document unnotarized, and do not staple, laminate or write on it.
5. Submit to the Office of Authentications. Or hand the whole file to us — we prepare, submit and track it, at $120 per apostille, all-inclusive, with the government filing fee already covered by that price.
6. Check the apostille before you send it abroad. Confirm the destination country, the name of the signing official and the document reference are all correct. Errors are far cheaper to fix before the document leaves the country.

Common reasons a federal apostille request is rejected

• The document was never signed by a federal official. Online printouts, PACER downloads and unsigned agency PDFs all fail at this hurdle.
• It was notarized first. A notary pushes a federal document onto the state route and voids the federal submission.
• It already carries a county or state certification. Same problem in reverse — Washington cannot act on a state official’s seal.
• The wrong copy of a DD-214. County-recorded copies go to the state; only NARA-certified copies go federal.
• The destination country is wrong or missing. The apostille names one country, and it cannot be edited afterwards.
• The destination is not a Hague member. The request should have been an authentication for embassy legalization.
• The document is too old for the receiving authority. The apostille will still issue; the foreign office will still refuse it.
• Physical damage. Lamination, staples through the seal, tears, handwriting or highlighting on the original.
• A signature not on file. Occasionally an official’s specimen signature is not held by the Department of State and the issuing agency has to reissue.
• An export certificate that has expired or does not match the certificate type the importing regulator named.

What if the destination country is not in the Hague Convention?

Then no apostille exists for it. The Department of State issues a certificate of authentication instead, and the embassy or consulate of the destination country legalizes the document afterwards. Some embassies add their own requirements — a translation prepared by an approved translator, a covering letter, an appointment, a specific order of steps. Confirm those with the embassy directly before you file, because the sequence is not interchangeable with the apostille route and redoing it means starting over.

For Hague countries, translation rules still vary. Colombia, for example, is a common destination for U.S. federal documents and generally expects a Spanish translation of the underlying record even though the apostille itself needs none. Requirements differ by country and by receiving office, and the authority receiving your document always has the final say on what it will accept.

Next step

Take the document you are holding and answer one question: whose signature and seal are on it? If the answer is a federal official, you are on the federal route and the Department of State is your only destination. If it is a printout with no signature at all, your first task is not the apostille — it is getting the issuing agency to produce a certified original.

If you are unsure which category your document falls into, or the receiving authority abroad has given you wording you cannot decode, send us the document type and the destination country and we will confirm the correct route before you order anything. Federal apostilles are $120 per apostille, all-inclusive — no separate government-fee surcharge and no per-page add-ons.