A Sunbiz screenshot is not a certificate

search.sunbiz.org is a website. A printout or a screenshot from it shows what the site displayed that day. It is not a certificate issued by the Florida Division of Corporations, and the Department of State will not apostille it. The seal they need is on a certificate you order, not on a browser window.

Order the certificate or the certified copy the bank or the foreign registry named. Good standing, articles, and amendments are different products. A bank that wants good standing will not be satisfied with articles from the year the company was formed, even if those articles are certified and apostilled perfectly. Read the request. Then order that paper. The guide is Sunbiz.

Dates matter more here than on a birth certificate. A birth does not go stale. A good-standing letter does, because the bank is asking whether the company is in good standing now. If they said 30 days, a certificate from March will fail in August. The apostille does not refresh the date. It repeats it, officially.

Out-of-state companies do not get a Florida Sunbiz certificate just because the owner lives in Florida. Formation state controls. See documents from another state.

When the real certificate is in hand, the filing is ordinary. Photo, order, ship the certificate, we take it to the counter, it comes back with the apostille attached. Do not annotate the certificate with a sticky note across the seal.

Law firms sending these in batches should read volume filing. One screenshot hidden in a stack of real certificates is how the whole courier trip gets a refusal in the middle. We pull it out if we see it. Send the photo first so we pull it out before the trip.

State fee is $10 on a Sunbiz certificate. Our fee is on prices. The Division of Corporations’ fee for issuing the certificate is paid to them when you order it. Three fees, three offices. That is normal for a company document, and it is cheaper than apostilling the wrong page.

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.

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 check the entity name, the date the certificate was issued, and that the state seal is on the paper. Banks abroad often want a recent good-standing date. 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 Sunbiz 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.

A photo review is a real review. We are not collecting pictures for a gallery. If the picture is dark, crooked, or missing the page with the seal, send another one before you buy a label. The seal page is the page. A beautiful first page with the seal cropped off tells us nothing.

Keep the certified copy flat in the envelope. Folding through an embossed seal cracks it. People then ask if the crack “still counts.” Do not find out. A rigid mailer costs less than a new certificate. Vital records are on security paper that shows a crease forever.

Read this together with Mexico, Florida Sunbiz certificate, Miami, Miami-Dade County, prices, how it works, the order form, all countries, Florida cities. Related guides: Volume filing for law firms, Court website printouts are not certified copies, When the consulate appointment is already booked, Documents issued outside Florida. The phone is (855) 261-8500 and the email is floridafastapostille@gmail.com.

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