Who issues a Florida apostille, and how you get one
Let's be straight with you: there is only one office that can put an apostille on a Florida document. It's the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, in Tallahassee. The Secretary of State is Florida's designated competent authority under the 1961 Hague Convention, and Florida apostilles are only issued at the state's office at 2415 N. Monroe Street. No county clerk, notary, courthouse or consulate can issue one. A service like ours doesn't issue apostilles either — we prepare your request and file it in person at that same office.
Getting one comes down to four things: the right version of your document, the official request form, the correct fee, and a way for the state to send it back. Here's the whole process at a glance:
- Confirm your document is eligible — issued in Florida or notarized by an active Florida notary.
- Get the right version — an original or certified copy, never a photocopy.
- Complete the state's Apostille and Notarial Certificate Request Form.
- Pay $10 per document ($20 for documents certified by a Florida Clerk of Court) by check or money order.
- Include a self-addressed stamped envelope or prepaid air bill.
- Mail the package or walk it in to the Tallahassee office.
- Check what comes back before you send it abroad.
The official source for all of this is the Florida Department of State's Authentications (Apostilles & Notarial Certifications) page. Everything below is written to match it.
Is your document eligible for a Florida apostille?
Florida can only certify the signature of a Florida official or a Florida notary. That gives you a simple test:
- Issued in Florida. Birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates from Florida, Florida court records certified by a Clerk of Court, FDLE background checks, Florida school records, Florida vehicle titles, and certified copies or certificates of status from the Florida Division of Corporations.
- Notarized in Florida. Any private document — a power of attorney, affidavit, consent letter, contract or corporate resolution — signed before a notary who held an active Florida commission on the day of notarization.
If your document was issued in another state, or notarized by a notary commissioned in another state, Florida can't help. It goes to the competent authority of that state.
Next, check where the document is going. If the destination country is a member of the Hague Apostille Convention (see the official HCCH status table), you receive an apostille. If it isn't, Florida issues a notarial certification (an authentication certificate) instead — same office, same fee, same request form. That's only the first step for non-Hague countries; read our non-Hague authentication page before you start.
Finally, make sure you have the right version of the document. The state accepts originals and certified copies only. Photocopies, scans, hospital keepsake birth certificates and plain printouts are returned. Each document type has its own rules — the Florida apostille requirements guide covers them one by one.
Filing it yourself: seven steps
This is the process the state expects from anyone who files directly. None of it is difficult, but every step is a place where a small mistake sends your documents back unprocessed.
Get the correct version of your document
Order a fresh certified copy from the issuing office if you don't already have one. Vital records come from the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics or a county health department and must carry the State Registrar's signature (see the vital records guide). Court documents must be certified by the Clerk of Court (court records guide). Private documents must be signed in front of a Florida notary with a complete notarial certificate (notarized documents guide).
Download and complete the request form
Use the state's official Apostille and Notarial Certificate Request Form (PDF). You'll give your contact details, the number of documents, the country where each document will be used, and the payment amount. The country you list tells the state whether to issue an apostille or a notarial certification, so be specific. Our request form page walks through the fields.
Prepare payment
The state fee is $10 per document. Documents certified by a Florida Clerk of Court cost $20 each — a $10 apostille plus a $10 certificate of incumbency. Pay by check or money order made payable to the Florida Department of State, in U.S. dollars and drawn on a U.S. bank. The state does not accept cash or credit cards.
Arrange the return
Include a self-addressed stamped envelope or a prepaid, pre-addressed air bill, with your name and address as both the sender and the recipient. Use enough postage for the weight of your documents and add tracking if you can — the originals inside are often hard to replace.
Assemble the package
Put the completed form, the original or certified documents, the check or money order, and the return envelope or air bill together. Don't staple, unstaple, laminate or separate anything that came stapled from the issuing office. Make photocopies of everything for your own records before you seal the envelope.
Mail it or walk it in
Mail goes to the Division of Corporations, Apostille Section, P.O. Box 6800, Tallahassee, FL 32314-6800. Walk-in and courier deliveries go to 2415 N. Monroe Street, Suite 810, Tallahassee, FL 32303, Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM, except state holidays. Mail requests are processed in the order received, and the state doesn't offer an expedited mail option.
Check what comes back
When the package returns, confirm every document has its certificate attached, the country is right, and nothing was returned unprocessed with a note. Keep the certificate attached to the document — the pair is what the foreign authority will examine.
Mail vs. walk-in: addresses and hours
| By mail | Walk-in or courier | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | Department of State, Division of Corporations, Apostille Section, P.O. Box 6800, Tallahassee, FL 32314-6800 | Department of State, Division of Corporations, The Centre of Tallahassee, 2415 N. Monroe Street, Suite 810, Tallahassee, FL 32303 |
| Hours | — | Monday–Friday, 8 AM – 5 PM (closed state holidays) |
| Speed | Processed in the order received; no expedited option | Most requests completed while you wait |
| Fee | $10 per document, $20 if Clerk-certified | Same |
| Payment | Check or money order to the Florida Department of State | Same — no cash or credit cards |
The walk-in option is fast once you're at the counter, but it means being in Tallahassee during business hours. If you live in Miami, Tampa or out of state, that's usually a day of travel for a $10 certificate. Mail avoids the trip but adds transit both ways plus the state's queue. Addresses and hours come from the state's Division of Corporations contact page and apostille FAQ; check them again right before you file.
What a finished Florida apostille looks like
The state attaches a one-page certificate to each document. For Hague countries it's titled "Apostille" with the French subtitle "(Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)" and lists the country, who signed your document, in what capacity, and the certificate's date and number. For non-Hague countries the certificate is a notarial certification instead.
Florida certificates are printed on security paper. A photocopy shows the word "VOID" across the page, and each certificate has a unique identification number on the back, in the lower left corner. Leave the certificate attached to your document — if the two are separated, the foreign authority has no way to know they belong together. For more on what the certificate does and doesn't prove, read what a Florida apostille is.
How long the do-it-yourself route takes
Walk-in requests are usually finished the same visit. Mail is different: your package travels to Tallahassee, waits its turn in the queue, and travels back. Plan on several weeks door to door — our own experience is roughly five to seven weeks once you count mailing both ways — and longer if something is returned for correction and you have to start over. The full breakdown, including what slows requests down, is on our processing time page and how long an apostille takes.
Why do-it-yourself requests come back
Most returned requests trace back to the document itself, not the form. The ones we see over and over:
- A photocopy or a "notarized copy" of a birth, marriage or court record. Florida notaries can't certify copies of vital records, court filings or public school records.
- A notarized document with an incomplete notarial certificate — no venue, no ID type, no physical presence or online notarization box, or a stamp that's cut off.
- A notary whose commission had expired, or who isn't commissioned in Florida.
- A court record sent with $10 instead of $20.
- A check made out to the wrong payee, or a missing return envelope.
The full list, with fixes, is in why Florida apostilles get rejected.
The other way: we file it in person for you
If the trip to Tallahassee or the weeks in the mail queue don't work for you, that's what our service is for. My Florida Apostille is a private company, not a government agency. We don't issue apostilles — the Florida Department of State does. What we do is check your document, complete the request, pay the state fee and file every order in person at the state's Tallahassee office.
- Price: $220 per document, $380 for two, $160 each for three or more. That includes the state fee, the request form and FedEx both ways inside the U.S. See the full cost breakdown.
- Turnaround: 5–7 business days door to door.
- How to send: order online from anywhere and after we review your documents, FedEx emails you a prepaid label to ship to our Tallahassee processing office, or meet us in person by appointment at our West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa or Clearwater office (Monday–Friday, 9 AM – 6 PM).
- Shipping abroad: +$100 flat per order to return your documents to any country.
- Need a notary first? Our online notarization add-on is $40 for the first document ($10 notarization fee + $30 technology platform fee) and $20 for each additional one.
Non-Hague destination? We handle the Florida authentication at the same price and turnaround. The U.S. Department of State authentication and embassy legalization that follow are steps we don't handle or arrange.