What a Florida apostille looks like | Florida Fast Apostille

A Florida apostille is a certificate with numbered fields. Those fields are the Hague form: country, the person who signed, the capacity in which they signed, the seal, the place and date, the issuing authority, and a number. Florida’s certificate is attached to your document. It is not a gold foil on the face of your birth certificate, and it is not a rubber stamp that says “apostille” in the margin.

You should be able to read the name of the Florida official and see that the certificate belongs to the paper it is attached to. If a relative abroad says “they want the stamp,” this certificate is the stamp they mean when the country is in the convention. Show them a photo of a finished one if they are unsure, but do not unstaple a finished set to scan one page and then restaple it through the seal.

The certificate does not contain a translation. It does not contain your flight date. It does not contain a promise that the foreign office will like the underlying document. If the document was the wrong type, the apostille does not cure it. Read the document guide that matches your paper, starting from the document list.

People sometimes receive a notarized page and think the notary seal is the apostille. It is not. The notary is what Florida authenticates on a power of attorney or an affidavit. The apostille comes after, from the Department of State, and it refers to that notary.

On a vital record, the apostille refers to the registrar or the official who certified the copy. You will not see a notary on a normal birth certificate, and you should not add one. Adding a notary to a certified vital record is a common way to make a clean paper look altered.

When we return the file, the original and the certificate travel together. The optional PDF scan is a picture of that set, for the office that asked for an advance copy. The PDF is $20. It is not a substitute for the paper. Prices lists it as its own line.

If you want to see whether your destination even uses this certificate, open the country from countries. Cuba is the example we make people read when the answer is no. Mexico is the example when the answer is yes.

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.

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.

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.

Tell the foreign office the truth about timing. “It is apostilled” means the certificate is attached and you have the original back. It does not mean you paid us this morning. Mexico will want to see the paper, not a receipt. If they need an advance look, add the $20 PDF on prices and still wait for the original before you travel.

One Florida document, one state fee, one apostille. There is no family rate at the counter that covers a spouse and a child on a single certificate. If three people need three birth records, that is three certified copies and three stamps. Set the order up that way. Several documents explains the invoice.

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.

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, Documents issued outside Florida, Hospital birth certificates cannot be apostilled, How to read a Florida apostille refusal. The phone is (855) 261-8500 and the email is floridafastapostille@gmail.com.

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