Florida State Document — Full Chain

The full chain for a Florida document going to a non-Hague country

A Florida-issued state document — a birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate or similar — that needs to be used in a country outside the Hague Convention has to pass through three separate authorities, in order. This service handles all three as one order, so you are not coordinating between offices yourself.

The three steps

1. Florida Secretary of State authentication. The state certifies its own document. This is the step we handle in-house for Florida documents.
2. U.S. Department of State authentication. Because the destination is not a Hague country, the federal level adds its authentication on top of the state’s.
3. Embassy or consulate legalization. The destination country’s embassy performs the final legalization, making the document valid there.

Skipping or reversing any step means the document is rejected. Because this is a three-agency process, it is the longest of our services — typically 20 to 22 business days — but it is a single flat price with every government fee included.

What is included

• The Florida Secretary of State fee.
• The U.S. Department of State authentication fee.
• Embassy or consulate legalization.
• Document review at each stage, and tracked shipping within the United States.

Is this the right service?

Choose this if your document was issued by the State of Florida and is going to a non-Hague country. If your Florida document is going to a Hague country, it needs only a Florida apostille — a shorter, different process; tell us the destination and we will confirm. If your document was issued by a different state, see Other State Documents, which has an important requirement about prior authentication.