When you are requesting a permanent visa from a foreign country, you will more than likely be asked to provide personnel documents that have been apostilled. This was the case when my wife and I decided to move our residency to Quito, Ecuador, we had to obtain a permanent visa from that country and have certain documents apostilled.
In order to obtain that visa we had to provide our birth certificates, police background checks and proof of income. These documents not only had to be notarized, but an apostille seal had to be placed on them. I had never heard of the term apostille, so I did some research on just what it was and how to go about getting my documents apostilled.
What Is Apostille
When I heard that I had to have these documents apostilled, I first thought they had to be blessed, but that was not the case. Before 1961, a person who wanted to prove a document was authentic, for use in a foreign country, had to go to at least four different places to have the document certified that it was authentic.
In 1961 the United States and the countries that were members of The Hague Convention agreed to abolish the lengthy process to certify a document and replace it with a single seal signed by the state, usually the Secretary of State, from which the document originated.
How To Obtain An Apostille
To have your document apostilled, you must first obtain a notarized copy of the document you need. In my case I had to have notarized my birth certificate from the state of California, my police background check from the state of Nevada, where I currently live, and my proof of pay from Nebraska.
Once I received these notarized documents they had to be sent to the Secretary of State in the state they were notarized in. In my case by birth certificate went to the state of California, my background check went to Nevada and my proof of pay went to Nebraska.
My wife was a little different than me. Though she had her police background check done in Nevada, she had to contact the government of England to have her birth certificate notarized and apostilled.
This all seems complicated, but with the existence of the Internet today it was quite simple, Once I had my notarized documents in hand, I looked up the Secretary Of State for the state I needed to have the document apostilled to see what they required.
All the states I looked at usually had the same requirements:
Wanted to know what country the document was for
Usually wanted a payment of 20 dollars
A phone number where they could contact you
A return address
Once I had sent my documents off, I usually got them back within two weeks.
Conclusion
If you are required to have a document apostilled, do not panic. The information you will need can easily be found on the Internet. Follow the steps from reliable web sites and you will find it is real easy to have your documents apostilled.
