Notarized Document Authentication for Haiti

Haitian families in Florida sign many private documents for use back home: declarations to a Haitian notary, statements about family relationships for an estate, authorizations for a relative to pick up documents. Each needs a complete Florida notarial certificate. Because many offices in Haiti work in French, you can have the document written in French and notarized here, as long as the notarial certificate itself is in English. That can save a translation.

A complete Florida notarial certificate in English: venue (State of Florida, County of ___), physical presence or online notarization box, date, signer's name, ID type or personally known, and the notary's original signature, printed name and seal with commission number and expiration date. The document itself can be in any language, and the notary's commission must have been active on the signing date.

Sign before any Florida notary, at an in-person appointment in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa or Clearwater (notarization charged separately), or through our online notarization add-on: $40 for the first document ($10 notarization fee + $30 technology platform fee) and $20 for each additional document. Notarization is not included in the $220 apostille price.

State fee for this document: $10 — included in our price. Full details on the notarized document 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).