Documents issued outside Florida | Florida Fast Apostille

Florida apostilles Florida documents. A birth certificate from New York, a diploma from Texas, a divorce from Georgia: those go to the state that issued them. We cannot walk them into the Florida Department of State and come out with a valid apostille. The examiner will refuse them, and they should.

People ask because they live in Florida now. Residence does not reissue a vital record. If you live in Orlando and you were born in Ohio, Ohio is still the birth state. Order the certified copy there, and follow Ohio’s apostille instructions. We will tell you that from a photo. There is no Florida cover sheet that changes the state of birth.

The exception people hope for is notarization. A power of attorney signed in Florida, in front of a Florida notary, is a Florida document even if the property is abroad and even if the signer was born elsewhere. The notary is the Florida official. That paper can be apostilled here. A power of attorney page explains the seal we need to see.

A true-copy statement by a Florida notary is also a Florida notarial act. It is not a back door for a New York birth certificate. Do not pay a notary to “make it Florida.” The destination country has seen that maneuver. So has Tallahassee.

Company records follow the state of formation. A Delaware company does not become a Florida company by opening a shop in Miami. A Sunbiz certificate is for Florida entities. Delaware has its own authentication path.

If you have a mix — a Florida marriage and an out-of-state birth — apostille them in the two states and carry both certificates to the foreign office if that office asked for both. Order only the Florida half with us. Prices are for that half only.

Send the photo anyway if you are unsure. A refusal that takes one look is cheaper than a week of shipping. Contact if you want to describe it in a sentence first. Include the state printed at the top of the document, not the state where you currently pay rent.

If you are ready to file a Florida document after this, start an order with a photo attached. Prices split our fee, the state fee, and shipping. How it works is the sequence from photo to return label. Questions that do not fit the form go to contact or (855) 261-8500.

Country rules still differ after the stamp exists. Browse countries for the destination on your checklist. Cuba does not take this stamp. Most other destinations our clients name are Hague countries and do.

Picture a normal week. Someone in Miami, Miami-Dade County emails a photo on a Monday. We answer the same day if the photo shows the seal. They ship Tuesday. The envelope is on the desk after about two business days. We file it on the next business-day drop, and the stamped original is labeled home after that. Nothing in that week requires them to take a day off and drive to Tallahassee.

The week goes wrong when the photo was of the wrong paper and they shipped anyway. Then we are holding an original we cannot stamp, and they are waiting on a carrier to bring it back before they can order the right one. That is a lost week. The photo first, the label second.

People ask if they can skip the photo. You can, and then the first time we see the defect is when the original is already in Tallahassee. Use the photo.

People ask if a PDF of the finished apostille is the same as the paper. It is not. The $20 scan is a convenience. The original is the filing.

People ask if every Florida city has a different price. No. Prices are the same in Miami and everywhere else in the state. The carrier’s quote changes with the address. Our filing fee does not.

If a lawyer, a translator, and a courier are all in the email thread, pick one person to receive our questions. Three replies that contradict each other are how the wrong paper gets shipped. Put that person’s phone on the cover sheet. (855) 261-8500 reaches us during the business day if the thread is stuck.

Do not send gifts, cash, or a second “just in case” photocopy clipped to the original. The extra sheet looks like the document. We have separated them, and we would rather not. Send the original you want stamped and the cover sheet. Make spare copies after the apostille exists so the spare shows the stamp.

Check the destination one last time against the country list. A relative may have said “the embassy” out of habit when the country has taken apostilles for years. Mexico is the page that matches this guide. Habit is how people buy embassy legalization they no longer need, or a Florida stamp they cannot use.

When the original comes home, look at the attachment before you celebrate. The certificate should be fastened to the document, the seal visible, the name of the Florida official readable. If a page is missing, call us before you mail it overseas. Fixing a set that is still in Miami is a different problem from fixing one that is already in a consular pouch.

Look at the document the way the counter will look at it. We look for the state seal, a readable name and date, and a paper that is still a certified copy rather than a scan you printed at home. If you would be embarrassed to hand that sheet to a clerk, do not hand it to a carrier. Order a better copy first. The order form is for the paper you actually have, not the paper you plan to order next week.

The cover sheet can be plain. Your name, the order number, the destination, and a phone that you answer. Write Mexico on it so a second document in the envelope does not get paired with the wrong country. Do not include a narrative of the family history. The examiner does not read it, and it sometimes gets stapled to the document by accident.

Do not add a notary seal on top of this birth certificate to make it look more official. A registrar or a clerk already signed it. An extra notary makes the paper look altered. Papers that do need a Florida notary are on the power of attorney and affidavit pages.

Return shipping is part of the job, not a footnote. Pick the FedEx service that matches the date you told the foreign office, and remember that a business day at the state sits between those two rides. From Miami, about two business days inbound is only half of the travel. The label home is chosen at checkout so you see the number.

Read this together with Mexico, Florida birth certificate, Miami, Miami-Dade County, prices, how it works, the order form, all countries, Florida cities. Related guides: When the consulate appointment is already booked, Hospital birth certificates cannot be apostilled, How to read a Florida apostille refusal, Do not laminate a paper that still needs an apostille. The phone is (855) 261-8500 and the email is floridafastapostille@gmail.com.

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