To apostille a birth certificate, order a state-certified long-form copy from the vital records office in the state where you were born, then send it with a completed request form, the required fee, and a prepaid return envelope to that same state’s apostille office, usually the Secretary of State. Processing runs anywhere from a few business days to several weeks depending on the office and whether you mail it in or walk it in. The apostille is a standardized certificate that verifies the signature and seal on your birth certificate so a foreign government will accept it as genuine, and you’ll need one for things like foreign citizenship applications, marriage abroad, university enrollment overseas, or foreign legal matters.
Confirm the Destination Country Accepts Apostilles
Apostilles only work for countries that have joined the Hague Apostille Convention. There are currently 129 member countries. If your destination is on the list, an apostille is the only certification you need. If it isn’t, the apostille process doesn’t apply and you’ll go through a longer state, federal, and embassy chain instead, covered at the end of this article.
The Hague Conference on Private International Law publishes a status table of every contracting party. Check it before you spend money, because the wrong certification route means starting over.
Get the Right Kind of Birth Certificate
This is where most applications go wrong. A hospital keepsake certificate, a photocopy, a wallet-size card, or a short-form abstract will not be apostilled. You need an official, state-certified long-form birth certificate issued by your state’s vital records office or department of health, carrying the registrar’s signature and raised seal.
Foreign authorities almost always require the long form because it lists details the short form leaves out: parents’ full names, their places of birth, the hospital, and the attending physician. Citizenship, residency, and marriage authorities use those details to verify lineage. When you order, look for language like “certified copy,” “long-form,” or “full birth certificate,” and avoid anything labeled “abstract,” “wallet-size,” “computer-issued certificate,” or “informational copy.”
Order a Recent Copy
Some states will not apostille a birth certificate issued more than five years ago, because the signing official may no longer be on file for signature verification. Many foreign governments add their own freshness rule on top of that, commonly requiring the certified copy and its apostille to have been issued within three to six months of submission. Even if your state would accept an older copy, the receiving country may not. Ordering a fresh certified copy before you start is the safest move.
Send It to the Correct Office
Apostilles for state-issued documents come from the state that issued them, not the state where you now live and not the federal government. In most states, the Secretary of State’s office handles apostilles. A few states use a different agency; Georgia, for example, routes apostille requests through the Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority.
Search your state government’s website for “apostille” to find the responsible office, its current fee, and its request form. The U.S. Department of State only apostilles federal documents. Sending a state birth certificate to the federal Office of Authentications is one of the more common reasons packages get bounced back.
What to Include in Your Submission
The package is consistent across states: the original certified birth certificate, a completed request form, and payment.
The Request Form
Most apostille offices post a downloadable form. It asks for your contact information, the type of document, and the destination country. Fill every field to match the birth certificate exactly. A name spelled “Catherine” on the certificate and “Katherine” on the form can trigger a rejection. Some states accept a plain cover letter instead, stating the destination country and the number of documents enclosed.
Fees
State apostille fees typically run between $2 and $20 per document. Expedited or same-day service, where available, costs more. Most offices take checks or money orders payable to the state; some accept credit cards, sometimes with a convenience fee. Confirm the exact amount and the exact payee before mailing, because many offices return the whole package for even a small payment error.
Return Envelope
Mailing is the most common route. Use a trackable service on the way in, and include a self-addressed, prepaid return envelope with tracking. Without prepaid return postage, most offices either won’t return the document or will send it back by regular mail with no tracking, which is a poor way to handle an irreplaceable record.
Some offices offer walk-in service, and a small number accept online submissions, though online options are still uncommon for physical birth certificates. Policies on drop-offs, appointments, and hours vary, so check before showing up.
How Long It Takes
Mailed requests generally take one to five weeks depending on the office’s backlog. Walk-in service, where available, can be same-day or within about a week. If you’re working toward a visa deadline or a foreign registration date, add shipping time in both directions on top of the processing window. Six to eight weeks of total lead time for a mailed request gives you room to recover if something has to be redone.
Why Applications Get Rejected
Most rejections come down to the same handful of issues:
- Submitting the wrong document type, such as a short-form abstract, hospital souvenir, or photocopy instead of a state-certified long form.
- Submitting an older certified copy whose signing official is no longer on file for verification.
- Sending the document to the wrong office, whether that’s the federal government for a state document or the wrong state entirely.
- Mismatched names or dates between the request form and the certificate.
- Wrong fee amount, wrong payee, or a payment method the office doesn’t accept.
- No prepaid return envelope, leaving the office with no way to send the documents back.
Offices usually return the whole package with a brief explanation, but you lose the weeks the request sat in queue.
What to Do With the Finished Apostille
The apostille comes back either printed on the birth certificate or attached as a separate page. Do not remove the staple, unclip, or otherwise separate the pages. Detaching the apostille is treated as tampering and invalidates the authentication. If you need copies, photocopy or scan the assembled document as-is.
Expiration
Under the Hague Convention, an apostille has no expiration date. In practice, that doesn’t mean much: many foreign governments, universities, and other institutions impose their own freshness rules, and it’s common to see a three- to six-month limit from the receiving side. Confirm the specific institution’s requirements before relying on an older apostille.
You Will Probably Need a Certified Translation
The apostille verifies authenticity but does not translate the document. If the destination country’s official language isn’t English, expect to need a certified translation of both the birth certificate and the apostille. Some countries want the translation notarized, and a few want the translation itself apostilled as a separate document. Requirements vary by country and often by institution within a country, so confirm what the specific receiving authority expects before paying for a translation.
If You Were Born Abroad to U.S. Parents
Your birth document in that case is a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA, formerly Form FS-240), which is a federal document. State Secretaries of State cannot apostille it. Instead, request the apostille from the U.S. Department of State by submitting a notarized Form DS-5542, a photocopy of your valid photo ID, and payment by check or money order made payable to the U.S. Department of State. A new copy of the CRBA itself costs $50. Mail the package to the Passport Vital Records office in Sterling, Virginia. Federal processing runs several weeks.
If the Destination Country Isn’t a Hague Member
Apostilles don’t apply here. You go through a three-step chain called authentication and legalization.
First, get the birth certificate authenticated at the state level by the Secretary of State’s office in the issuing state. Second, send the state-authenticated document to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Authentications for a federal authentication certificate. The federal office charges $20 per document. It accepts mailed requests paid by check or money order, and walk-in drop-offs paid by credit or debit card only. Mailed requests take about five weeks; walk-ins take roughly seven business days. The office is in Washington, D.C., with a mailing address in Sterling, Virginia.
Third, take the federally authenticated document to the embassy or consulate of the destination country for their own legalization. Each embassy sets its own fees, forms, and turnaround. This full chain is exactly what the Hague Convention was designed to replace for member countries, which is why it costs more and takes longer.