Florida documents bound for Jordan
Jordanian Americans in Florida send documents home to register births and marriages with Jordanian civil status, to manage or sell family land and apartments in Amman and Irbid, and to settle inheritances. Florida professionals also take jobs and teaching posts in Jordan, and companies sign contracts there. Jordan is not a party to the Apostille Convention, and it adds its own certification steps inside the country after the embassy.
What happens after our Florida step
After we return your document with its Florida authentication certificate, it must be authenticated by the U.S. Department of State before Jordan's embassy will accept it. The Legalization Section of the Embassy of Jordan in Washington, D.C. then legalizes it; the embassy uses Jordan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs e-portal for applications and payment. In Jordan, the document is certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice before it reaches the requesting authority. Diplomas and transcripts follow a separate route the embassy designates. 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.
Who receives it in Jordan
In the U.S., the Legalization Section of the Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Washington, D.C. legalizes documents after U.S. Department of State authentication. In Jordan, documents are then certified at the Documents Certification Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where the Ministry of Justice certifies them too, before reaching the office that asked for them: the Civil Status and Passports Department, the courts, the Department of Lands and Survey, ministries or employers.
Jordan's Ministry of Justice says translations of foreign documents go through the same certification steps, in the same order, as the original, even if the original is already certified. So if you translate into Arabic in Florida, the translation should be certified by the translator, notarized by a different notary and authenticated in Florida, then follow the same chain. Ask the receiving office first whether it would rather have the translation made in Jordan. One exception: to add a child to the family book through the embassy, the embassy accepts an Arabic translation stamped by a certified translation office without separate authentication.
Jordan's embassy instructions don't set a document-age rule. Jordanian offices may want recent vital records and police checks, so ask the receiving office how recent each document must be.
What it costs
$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 Jordan 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).