State Apostille or Federal Apostille?

We already established that any document that has to be used outside of the United States has to be Apostille or Certified to be acceptable by the receiving country. Now we want to establish if that Apostille or Certification has to come from the state the document was originated or it has to be Apostille or Certified by the US State department in Washington.Unfortunately even some that provide this kind of service don’t seem to know the difference. In simple words any document that was issued by the City, County or the State or Documents Notarized by a Notary Public of that state can be Apostilled or Certified in the State it was issued in. Any documents issued by the Federal Government and bearing the seal of the federal government must be Apostille by the US State Department in Washington. If someone tells you that a federal document can be Apostille by the state level walk away they don’t know what they are doing.

Some of the documents that can be Apostille or Certified by the state you reside in are Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Death Certificates, Power of attorneys, court documents, corporate documents, copy certification of ID’s, Passport’s, Diplomas or Transcripts and so on. Some of the Federal documents issue by the Federal Government and Bearing the seal of the Federal government include. Documents issued by the department of Homeland Security, Department of Health and Human services, Department of Commerce, department of Labor, Department of Agriculture, IRS, FBI and many other US State departments.

Keep in mind that the US state department has a huge backlog due to cutbacks and takes a long time processing mailed documents. It is highly recommended that you use a reputable Apostille service to help you get the correct Apostille for your Documents. There are thousands of teachers in the US applying for positions to teach English in South Korea. South Korea has very strict requirements for teachers coming from the US. Some of the documents they require are FBI Background check bearing the Apostille of the Federal government. US Diploma and Transcripts bearing the Apostille of the state they reside in and certified and Apostilled copy of Passport. There are other requirements but the only ones needing an Apostille are the documents mentioned above. First thing to do is to get your fingerprints takes by a qualified fingerprinting service to submit it to the FBI to get your FBI background check, that process alone takes about 2 to 3 months. Then get an Apostille on the Background check results the Diploma and the Passport copy. It is recommended that you use an Apostille service to help you out in getting the Apostille you need in a timely manner.