Apostille for a copy of your Florida driver's license

Before you order anything, figure out which of these the foreign party wants:

• A verified copy of the license card, used as proof of identity or address. This is a notarized document: a Florida notary notarizes your sworn statement about the copy, and the apostille confirms the notary.
• An official driving record (driver history), used when a foreign licensing office wants to see how long you have been licensed and whether there are violations. That record is issued by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV), not by a notary.

Florida cannot apostille the plastic card itself. The apostille always attaches to a paper document signed by a Florida official or notary.

• Secondary ID for banking or company formation, when a foreign bank asks for two forms of identification.
• Proof of a U.S. address, because your license shows a residential address and a passport does not.
• Exchanging or obtaining a local driver's license after moving abroad, where the licensing office may want proof of your existing license and driving experience.
• Residency files and rental contracts handled by a lawyer or agent on your behalf.

A Florida notary may attest a photocopy only if the document is neither a vital record nor a public record certifiable by an official source. The notary has to state exactly that in the attested-copy certificate.

Driver license records are kept by FLHSMV, and its records request form, HSMV 90511, offers certified copies of license and ID application documents. That makes it hard for a notary to sign the "not a public record" statement for a license copy, and many will reasonably decline.

The route that avoids the question: you sign a sworn statement that the attached copy of your license is true, complete and unaltered, and a Florida notary completes a jurat. The notary is notarizing your oath and signature, which any Florida notary can do.

You can do this in person with any Florida notary or through our online notarization add-on, where a Florida-commissioned online notary handles it by secure video. The add-on is $40 for the first document ($10 notarization fee plus a $30 technology platform fee) and $20 for each additional document. We print the notarized statement with a Florida attested-copy certificate and file it for the apostille.

FLHSMV's Driver License Records Request (HSMV 90511) lists a certified 3-year, 7-year or complete driver history for $10, payable to the Division of Motorist Services, and asks you to allow two weeks for processing. Certified driving records can also be ordered online through FLHSMV. Copies printed by some local tax collector offices are uncertified, so order the certified version.

A certified FLHSMV record is a Florida state agency document, a category the Florida Department of State lists as eligible for an apostille. Send us a photo of the certification before you ship it, so we can confirm it is ready to file.

For a license copy:

Price: $220 for one document, $380 for two, and $160 each for three or more. That covers the Florida Department of State fee, the request form, and FedEx both ways inside the U.S. Shipping the finished documents to an address outside the U.S. is a flat $100 per order. Turnaround is 5–7 business days, and we file every order in person in Tallahassee.

• A copy with a notary stamp and no certificate wording.
• A statement signed before the notary session, so the notary could not administer the oath on that signature.
• Notarized in another state. That state apostilles it, not Florida.
• An uncertified driving record printed online or at a local office.
• Missing back side of the license, when the receiving party asked for both.

• Spain, Italy and Germany: new residents asking about local licenses, and banks asking for secondary ID.
• Mexico and Dominican Republic: property, utilities and company paperwork handled by a local representative.
• Colombia and Peru: identity verification for accounts and contracts.

License exchange rules are set by each country's transport authority and differ widely. Check with that authority before ordering anything.

If the country where you will use the license copy or driving record is a party to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention, the Florida Department of State attaches an apostille and you are done on the U.S. side. You can check any country on the official HCCH status table.

If the country is not a party (the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Egypt are examples), Florida issues a certificate of authentication instead. We handle that Florida step at the same price and in the same 5–7 business days. Let's be straight with you about what comes after: non-Hague countries then require a U.S. Department of State authentication and legalization by that country's embassy or consulate. We do not handle or arrange those two steps, and we do not refer you to anyone for them. Your receiving authority or the embassy's checklist sets that sequence. Details are on our non-Hague authentication page.