Adoption Documents Authentication for Haiti

When a Florida family adopts a child, or when an adoption touches family in Haiti, the Florida adoption judgment may be needed to update records in Haiti, to show parental authority for travel or school, or for inheritance. The final judgment of adoption is the key document; the amended birth certificate alone may not explain the change of parents. Adoption files are confidential, so request the certified judgment from the Clerk of Court in the county that granted it.

The final judgment of adoption certified by the Florida Clerk of Court (wet-ink or official e-certification), with all pages attached; its state fee is $20. The new birth certificate must be a certified copy signed by the State Registrar and certified in 2014 or later; its state fee is $10. Both fees are included in our price.

Adoption records are confidential under section 63.162, Florida Statutes, and released only on court order. The easiest time to get certified copies is through your adoption attorney while the case is still open; for an older case, ask the clerk what they require, since you may need to file a request with the court. Clerk and Vital Statistics fees are not included in our $220.

State fee for this document: $20 — included in our price. Full details on the adoption documents page.

After we return your document with its Florida authentication certificate, it goes to the U.S. Department of State for authentication; Haiti's embassy says its consular service will only legalize documents already authenticated by the U.S. Department of State. The last U.S. step is legalization by Haiti's Embassy in Washington, D.C. or one of its Consulates General, including those in Miami and Orlando. Ask the office in Haiti receiving your document whether it also needs a stamp from Haiti's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We don't handle, arrange or refer anyone for these steps.

We don't handle or arrange the U.S. Department of State or embassy steps. See how non-Hague authentication works.

In Florida, Haiti is represented by its Consulates General in Miami and Orlando; the Embassy of Haiti in Washington, D.C. also legalizes U.S. documents. In Haiti, Florida documents typically go to civil-status officers (officiers de l'état civil), Haitian notaries (notaires) who handle property sales and estates, the courts, and schools or employers.

Haiti's official languages are French and Haitian Creole. Many Haitian offices work with documents in French, so ask the notary, court or registry receiving your English document whether it needs a French translation. If you translate in Florida, the translator certifies the translation and signs before a different notary, and the translation is authenticated in Florida along with the original, so it carries its own certificate.

We could not find a published Haitian rule on document age. Haitian notaries and registries may still ask for recent certified copies, so order fresh Florida records rather than reusing old ones, and ask the receiving office how recent they must be.

Consular office serving Florida: Consulate General of Haiti in Miami (Haiti also has a Consulate General in Orlando).

$220 per document, $380 for two and $160 each for three or more — the state fee, request form, in-person filing in Tallahassee and FedEx shipping inside the U.S. are included. Shipping the finished authentication to Haiti is a flat $100 per order.

Not included: whatever the issuing office charges for the certified copy or certificate, and notarization (online notarization is $40 for the first document — $10 notarization fee + $30 technology platform fee — and $20 for each additional one).