What is an Apostille?

An apostille is a form of authentication issued for documents for use in countries that participate in the Hague Convention of 1961. If you intend to use either; documents notarized by a Californian Public Notary, or a document that has been signed by a public official, outside of the United States of America you can obtain a Certificate of Apostille from the California Secretary of State (SOS) to ensure the validity of the signature of the public official, or the stamp of the notary public seal. An apostille does NOT validate the contents of the documents.

Do I need a Certificate of Apostille?

There are several uses for an apostille certified document. Including, but not limited to; validating a marriage license, validating a birth or death certificate, validating business documents, etc.

If you do not have any use for certified or notarized documents outside of the United States and its territories, there is no need to obtain an apostille.

How do I obtain a Certificate of Apostille?

To obtain a Certificate of Apostille, the documents must be submitted to the California SOS office, wherein they will validate the certifications and/or signature on the document. Once they have been validated, they will affix a certify the document and stamp it, allowing it to be used for legal purposes outside of the United States of America.

Can I use Sierra Express to help me get an apostille?

Yes! We make daily runs to the SOS office here in Sacramento in order to drop off and pick up documents. If you are interested in having us assist you, there are a few things to keep in mind;

• We must have the original notarized documents
• Our fees and the state fees will need to be paid up front
• If the document is time sensitive, we recommend including a pre-paid return envelope (USPS Priority, FedEx Overnight, or UPS Express)

The SOS will not issue a certificate of apostille on photocopies of the verifiable signature, thus we will need the original certified/notarized documents to submit them to the SOS office. The fees associated are variable, but will consist of our fees and the state fees. Please contact us or give us a call at 1 (916) 476-6530 in order to obtain an estimate of the cost prior to mailing us your documents.