Apostille or Certification

The California Secretary
of State provides authentication of public official signatures on
documents to be used outside the United States of America. The country
of destination determines whether the authentication is an Apostille or
Certification.

Apostilles and certifications only certify to the authenticity of the signature of the
official who signed the document, the capacity in which that official
acted, and when appropriate, the identity of the seal or stamp which
the document bears. The apostille or certification does not validate
the contents of the document.

• The California Secretary of State can only
  authenticate signatures on documents issued in the State of California
  signed by the following public officials and their deputies:

• Some examples of documents submitted for signature authentication are:

• Documents
  submitted to the Secretary of State for signature authentication must
  be currently certified by the appropriate public official or must be
  notarized by a California Notary Public.

  Customers
  requiring authentication of any school records (e.g., college
  transcripts) must obtain a notarized copy of the record from the high
  school, university, etc., before submitting the documents for
  authentication.

  Any document executed by County Health Officers and County Local Registrars can be authenticated only if the document is first certified by the county clerk/recorder.

  Note:

  The Secretary of State’s four regional offices (Fresno, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco) can only authenticate a California notary public’s signature if the county clerk/recorder (on the notary public’s stamp) first authenticates the signature. The customer must take the document with the notarized signature to the county clerk/recorder for certification and then submit the certified document to one of the four regional offices for authentication. Having a document certified at the county level is only required for authentication at our regional offices. The Secretary of State’s Sacramento office can authenticate a California notary public signature on a document without the notary public’s signature being certified at the county level.

  
  

• To avoid delays
  that may result from out-of-date documents, a document certified by a
  county official (e.g. county clerk) should have a certification date
  within the last five years or a new certified copy should be obtained
  from the appropriate county official.

• The customer must
  identify the country of destination when the documents are submitted to
  the Secretary of State. If documents are submitted by mail to the
  Sacramento office, a letter identifying the country of destination must
  accompany the documents. To facilitate the processing of documents
  submitted by mail, please include a self-addressed envelope.

• Documents can be
  hand delivered to any office location for over-the-counter processing
  between the hours of 8:00 am and 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday
  (excluding holidays) or mailed to the Sacramento office. Regional
  offices do not process mailed in documents. Office locations are as
  follows:

  	Sacramento Office
  		Street Address:		Mailing Address:
  			Notary Public Section 1500 11th Street, 2nd Floor Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 653-3595		Notary Public Section Post Office Box 942877 Sacramento, CA 94277-0001

  	Regional Offices
  		Fresno:		Los Angeles:
  			1315 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 203 Fresno, CA 93721 (559) 445-6900		300 South Spring Street, Room 12513 Los Angeles, CA 90013 (213) 897-3062
  		San Diego:		San Francisco:
  			1350 Front Street, Suite 2060 San Diego, CA 92101 (619) 525-4113		455 Golden Gate Avenue, Suite 14500 San Francisco, CA 94102-7007 (415) 557-8000

• When submitting documents to any of our offices for
  over-the-counter processing, no appointment is necessary. Customers are
  served on a “first come first serve” basis.

• Documents submitted for over-the-counter processing are
  normally processed within an hour. The average processing time for
  documents submitted by mail is approximately two weeks.

• There is a $20.00 processing fee (per signature
  authenticated) and a $6.00 special handling fee (per public official
  for documents submitted over the counter). Payments for documents
  submitted:

  -		by mail to Sacramento can be made by check or money order.
  -		over-the-counter in Sacramento can be made by check, money order, cash, or credit card (Visa or MasterCard).
  -		over-the-counter in any of the four regional offices can be made by check, money order, or credit card (Visa or MasterCard). Regional offices are not able to accept cash.

  Checks or money orders should be made payable to the Secretary of State.

General Information

In 1961 many nations joined together to create a simplified
method of “legalizing” documents for universal recognition in each
other’s countries. Members of the conference, referred to as the Hague
Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalization of Foreign
Public Documents (33 U.S.T 883), adopted a document referred to as an
Apostille that would be recognized by all member nations.

Documents sent to member nations, completed with an Apostille at the state level, may be submitted directly to the member nation without further action.

Documents sent to non-member nations requiring a Certification of the signature of the state’s public official at the state level, then must be transmitted to the Authentication Office of the Department of State in Washington, D.C. for the Authentication of the State Official’s signature.