Apostille Convention (Hague Convention)

A large number of countries all over the world have joined a treaty that greatly simplifies the authentication of documents to be used abroad. This treaty is called the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. It is commonly known asthe Apostille Convention. Where it applies, the treaty reduces the authentication process to a single formality: the issuance of an authentication certificate by an authority designated by the country where the public document was issued. This certificate is called an Apostille.

The United States of America joined the Apostille Convention on October 15, 1981. This means that if the document originated in the U.S., an is intended to be used in one of the countries that also joined the Apostille Conveniton, it only has to be legalized by an Apostille. No embassy/consulate legalization is required.   

An Apostille may never be used for the recognition of a document in the country where that document was issued – Apostilles are strictly for the use of documents abroad!

If you have any doubts, you should ask the intended recipient of your document whether an Apostille is necessary in your particular case.

New York apostilles: price, processing time, order form

New York Apostille Order Form (PDF file)

Our apostille guarantees

Not many companies provide this guarantee but we do: if, for some reason, your documents are rejected by the state after we assured you that they are acceptable, we will issue a 100% refund, no questions asked. We do not keep any service fees.

We apostille many kinds of documents from New York and from all other U.S. states for use in Hague countries. The most common documents we process for New York apostilles are New York birth, marriage (we can get an extended certified copy of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island marriage certificate and have it apostilled within 2-3 business days), death certificates, divorce records, single status affidavits, criminal records, diplomas and transcripts, corporate documents including articles of incorporation, certificates fo good standing, bylaws and llc agreements, powers of attorney, minutes, resolutions, and many more.

We authenticate documents from all 62 counties in New York State including the five boroughs of New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island). The most popular counties we receive documents from are: Kings county (Brooklyn), Bronx county, Queens county, New York county (Manhattan), Nassau County (Long Island), Suffolk County (Long Island), Westchester County, Richmond County (Staten Island). The most popular cities we receive documents from are: New York City, Albany, Syracuse, and Buffalo.

After we have reviewed your documents, in most cases we will ask you to mail the originals to us. Sometimes, documents can be submitted by email or will qualify for our 24-hour apostille service. Please note that 24-hour apostilles are processed in Washington, DC. The price for our 24-hour apostille service is $175.

Processing times differ depending on nature of your documents. In each case will provide the time estimate, and will do our best to meet the deadline.

Delivery by FedEx (2nd day) is included in the price. We also ship internationally. to most countries (except for Eastern Europe and Latin America, which is ).

We accept all kinds of payment, including personal and corporate checks, money orders, credit and debit cards, PayPal, bank transfers, Western Union, and MoneyGram.

Apostilles procedures are not complicated if you entrust your documents to legalization experts who know the requirements of U.S. apostille agencies, foreign consulates and embassies and the requirements of the receiving organizations in foreign countries.

We process documents for ALL foreign countries. Please call us!