Many people and companies that are relocating, have work visas or college students wanting to do a semester abroad, or you’re trying to marry someone who’s from a foreign (non-USA) country are asked by that country to obtain an FBI criminal background check and then get an apostille FBI background check at the United States Department of State located in Washington D.C.

An FBI background check is a FEDERAL document meaning it can ONLY be apostilled (Hague Convention country members) or authenticated (non-Hague Convention country members) in one city and at one place in the world.

That is at the U.S Department of State in Washington DC.

It cannot be apostilled or authenticated anywhere else or by any entity or person including consulates, embassies, consulars, translators, process servers, notaries, judges, lawyers, district or country clerks, or any of the fifty U.S state secretaries of state offices (each state has its own SOS office).

This week we had a customer who didn’t follow our detailed FBI check ordering online instructions, didn’t contact us before mailing their documents to us, and they tried to use a Texas notary to get the Texas Secretary of State to apostille an FBI background check that was notarized by a Texas notary which is ILLEGAL.

We are guessing that couldn’t wait the 4-7 weeks (current turnaround time for the USDOS) to be issued a federal apostille certificate from the Department of State and they thought they could pull a fast one with the Secretary of State of Texas by notarizing it.

The document that we submitted on their behalf was of course rejected by the state and now the client will have to pay us a second time if they want us to rush apostille it at the federal level for them.

There is no workaround or trick to get your FBI identity history summary apostilled or authenticated faster than whatever the current turnaround times are for the State Department.

The State Department has been closed to the public since 3/20/20 because of COVID and they have NEVER REOPENED to the public since which is insane beyond words. Because of this, their turnaround times have varied randomly from the fastest turnaround times of 3-4 weeks to the peak worst turnaround times of 12-13 weeks.

Our best advice is within a day or two of receiving your FBI background check EMAIL us your FBI background check PDF (you will get your check to download via PDF), along with a prepaid return FedEx or UPS shipping label, and our federal apostille order form and we can submit your documents to the Department of State the next day.