Apostille for the USA

How to get an Apostille on Irish and UK documents for use in the USA?

Docsbase Consular Services with offices in Dublin Ireland and London UK is specialising in the legalisation of all types of commercial, vital, government documents from Ireland and the UK for official use in the USA. We can arrange reissuance of documents in the UK and Ireland, notarisation and apostille legalisation of Irish and UK documents as well as the Embassy legalisation in London and Dublin. We are familiar with the requirements of American authorities and can prepare your documents in a way that they will be accepted by the American authorities without any further legalisation. Docsbase Translation is our in-house translation department specialising in preparing a certified translation of English documents appropriately certified for use in the USA. We also have reliable partners in Washington that can provide legalisation of American documents for use abroad, in particular in the Republic of Ireland and the UK.

Apostille from the USA

At times, you may find yourself running into problems when it comes to using your American documents in another country. That’s where we come in. We specialise in providing Apostille and Consular Legalisation services to clients like you, who need to have anything from a Child Travel Consent Letter to an FBI Criminal Background check certified for official recognition outside the USA.

Or perhaps your documents originated in a different country, and it’s imperative that you have them made officially recognisable in the USA. We’re here to help with that too.

The USA is quite unique in the world of Apostille. Rather than there being a centralised Apostille system in place, each individual state takes its own responsibility for providing Apostille services. As such, a state can only confer an Apostille upon documents that have originated in that state. Think of it this way – if you have a birth certificate from New York State, the State of Texas wouldn’t be able to Apostille it for you. You’d have to have it done in the state of New York instead.

What is Apostille?

In 1961, the “Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents” was drafted, in a bid to create a simpler method for authenticating documents to be used in other countries. This is otherwise known as Apostille.

Put simply, Apostille is a legal certification that makes a document from one country valid in another country, as long as both countries have signed up to the Hague Convention. The USA has been part of the Hague Convention for just over 30 years, having signed up in 1981.

What documents can be authorised by Apostille?

Apostille is complicated in the USA, and it differs from other Hague Convention states in many ways, however the types of documents that you need to have authenticated in this way are similar. Perhaps you require an Affidavit for use in a foreign court, perhaps you need to prove consent for children to travel to the necessary country, or perhaps you need to prove your vital statistics by way of Birth or Marriage certificate. No matter what the document is, or what purpose it will serve, if it’s a public document, issued by the federal government or state government, it will require an Apostille authentication for use in other Hague Convention countries.

The way that process happens depends very much on the state in which the document originated, and what department issued the document. Authenticating documents properly is a complicated task, and if anything, this system makes it even more so. That’s why it’s so important that you employ the services of a company like ours, one that has an intimate knowledge of the nooks and crannies of the American Apostille.

US Citizens are one of our largest client bases, and we have copious amounts of experience in navigating the twists and turns of Apostille across the 50 states. We have agents all over the USA who are ready to process your documents the right way so that you come up against no unexpected issues overseas.

What is the alternative?

It may be that you are going to use your documents in a country that does not mirror the USA in being part of the Hague Convention. In these cases, the documents will have to go through a process known as Notarisation. If you thought the American Apostille system sounded complicated, then you’re in for a shock.

This is a common process around the world, but the arrangement of departments and governance in the USA makes this an even more complicated proposal than the Apostille. Documents issued at a County level have a completely different set of requirements from those issued at a higher State level. Similarly, there are yet more changes when your documents have been issued at a Federal level. Oftentimes, when you’ve settled on the level at which your documents were issued, the requirements then change depending on the type of document that is being submitted for authentication.

So, do you see what we mean yet? With so many possible pitfalls, it’s vital that you entrust this process to an organisation that knows the ins and outs of every state, and that can manage your process smoothly, with as little inconvenience to you as possible.

What services can we provide?

We provide a number of services for clients both in the USA and abroad. We offer certified translations which can be legalised quickly, as we operate our own translation company – certifiedtranslations.ie – which allows us to work efficiently and accurately on your behalf. We also have our own visa company – visaworld.ie – so we can provide all manner of visa services, including having documents legalised for use in visa applications.

We also offer notarial services to our clients – anything from drafting and witnessing Powers of Attorney to certifying documents for immigration and emigration. This is alongside our Apostille services, including working closely with the US Department of State.

If the country where your documents originated is not signed up to the Apostille Convention previously mentioned, then they will need to undergo Notarisation before being deemed acceptable in the USA and vice versa – we also provide services to ensure that this process runs as smoothly as possible for you.

The Benefits for You

There are several reasons why choosing us to help you with legalising your documents will be of benefit to you:

1. We are true experts in this field, keeping a constant eye on the changes in requirements and pricing around the world, which means we are always best placed to give you the information you need. Helping people like you every day allows us to build excellent strong working relationships with embassies around the world, making the whole process easier for you.
2. Due to our intimate knowledge of embassies and consulates around the world, we use only those approved certification providers who will definitely be accepted, making the entire process faster and more efficient. It’s not every firm who have this sort of knowledge and connection!
3. We’ve made it easier for you. We’ve made it faster for you. But we also make it cheaper for you. We do this every day, and we operate in bulk, which allows us to keep processing fees to a minimum.
4. We operate out of offices around the world, including Washington, London, and Dubai. This means we are usually just a stone’s throw away from the majority of the world’s embassies, making the whole process run much more smoothly for you.
5. We manage to complete our process 40% faster than the average firm, because we’re not wasting time building relationships, researching, and setting up accounts. We’ve done all that already! This allows you to go from start to finish faster than you could have ever thought possible.