Apostille for a Florida Birth Certificate

This is the part that surprises people. A Florida notary is prohibited from making an attested photocopy of a birth certificate, because it is a public record obtainable from a public office. More importantly, the Florida Department of State will not apostille a notarized copy of a vital record. It apostilles the certified copy itself, by verifying the signature of the State Registrar or the county official who issued it.

So if a service offers to notarize your birth certificate for an apostille, that package is going to come back. The notary's role in a birth certificate apostille is limited to the supporting documents that sometimes travel with it — a translation affidavit, a power of attorney authorizing someone to file on your behalf, or a cover letter that requires a sworn signature.

For a birth in Florida, order a certified copy from the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, or from the county health department where the birth was recorded. In Miami-Dade, the county health department issues them locally, which is usually faster than mailing Jacksonville.

The copy must be a recent certified copy bearing the registrar's signature and the raised or printed seal. Hospital-issued souvenir certificates with footprints are not vital records and will be rejected outright. An old certified copy from decades ago may also be refused if the signing registrar is no longer on file with the state, so order a fresh one rather than gambling on the copy in your filing cabinet.

For a birth outside Florida, the apostille must come from that state's authority, not from Tallahassee. A New York birth certificate is apostilled in Albany. A Puerto Rico birth certificate goes through the Puerto Rico Department of State. Florida can only authenticate Florida officials.

If the receiving country is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention — Spain, Colombia, Argentina, Italy, Brazil, Mexico and most of Europe and Latin America — a single apostille from the Florida Department of State is the whole authentication. Nothing further is required and no consulate visit is needed.

If the country is not a Hague member, the document instead needs full legalization: state authentication, then the US Department of State, then that country's embassy or consulate. That chain takes considerably longer and costs more, and the order cannot be shuffled. Tell us the destination before anything is submitted.

Many countries also require a translation, and the translation requirements vary wildly. Some accept a certified translation done in the US with a translator's affidavit, which we notarize. Others insist on a sworn translator registered in their own country, in which case the translation should be arranged after the apostille rather than before.

We handle the notarial pieces around the vital record and we manage the submission so you are not learning the state's requirements by trial and error. That means notarizing the power of attorney or authorization letter if someone else is filing for you, notarizing translation affidavits, reviewing the certified copy before it is mailed so an obvious defect is caught here rather than in Tallahassee, and arranging tracked shipping both directions.

We also tell people when they do not need us. If you already hold a fresh certified copy and you are comfortable mailing it to the Department of State yourself, the state's own fee is modest and the process is documented publicly. Our value is in the review and the handling, not in gatekeeping a public service.

There are two clocks running and they are independent. The first is ordering the certified copy from vital statistics, which depends entirely on that agency's current turnaround and whether you order in person or by mail. The second is the Department of State's processing time for the apostille itself, plus shipping in both directions.

We do not publish a number for either, because both move and a promised date we cannot control is worse than no date. What we will do is tell you the state's current posted processing time when you call, and give you tracking on everything that leaves our hands.