■ Next to each of the 85 different document types listed on the Select Document drop-down menu above, it will show either an RD, NRD, or CD. This will let you know if you need to get your documents notarized before you can mail or drop them off to us.
■ Recordable Document (RD) = These types of documents do not need to be notarized but they must be original or certified copies (no photocopies) and be issued from a Texas city or county clerk’s office or Texas Vital Statistics/Texas Vital Records if you want us to apostille them first at the state level (Texas Secretary of State) which you must do before they can be submitted to the federal level (U.S Department of State) and international levels (U.S foreign embassies in Washington D.C) for non-Hague member countries.
If your recordable documents were issued from another state (non-Texas) you can only receive a state-level apostille from the state in which your documents were issued from. You cannot email, mail, or drop off recordable documents to us that were issued from another state (non-Texas) or another country. TEXAS ONLY unless you got them apostilled from another state first and now you want us to help you with the federal apostille and embassy document legalization process.
■ Non-Recordable Document (NRD) = These types of documents must be the signed originals (no photocopies) and be properly wet ink or online notarized by a Texas or another state notary public. If your non-recordable documents were notarized by a non-Texas notary you can only receive a state-level apostille from the state in which your notary is licensed and you must do this step before your document can be submitted to the federal level (U.S Department of State) or international level (U.S foreign embassies in Washington D.C) for non-Hague member countries.
You cannot email, mail, or drop off non-recordable documents to us that were notarized by another state’s notary. TEXAS NOTARIES ONLY unless you got them apostilled from another state first and now you want us to help you obtain a federal authentication certificate and embassy document legalization.
■ Corporations Document (CD) = These types of documents do not need to be notarized but you cannot mail or drop off these types of documents to us. You can only email us to start the Texas corporate apostille ordering process.
■ You can only choose ONE foreign (non-USA) country per document. The United States Department of State and any U.S foreign Embassy will only issue you ONE apostille or authentication certificate on ONE document and for ONE foreign (non-USA) country. This means the Department of State and any U.S foreign Embassy will not issue you multiple authentication or legalization certificates for multiple countries on one document.
■ All federal government document filing fees are included in our flat fee rush federal apostille service pricing.
■ When creating and buying a FedEx, UPS, or DHL prepaid return shipping label they will ask you for a sender’s address (from address) which means if your documents get lost in the mail the sender’s address is the return address of where the undelivered documents will be sent back to by FedEx, UPS, or DHL.
You must put your name and address or your company’s name and address as the sender (from address) on the prepaid shipping label and/or on the customs invoice if shipping internationally. Depending on what foreign country you live in outside the U.S the FedEx, UPS, or DHL online system may see your foreign IP address and not let you put your foreign address in as the sender (from address). If this happens you must list a friend, relative, or company office address which is located in the U.S as the sender (from address).
You CANNOT put our company name (Apostille Texas) or our address as the sender because we are not the sender. The sender is you because you created and paid for the prepaid return shipping label, not us and you are 100% responsible for paying all shipping and customs charges when shipping internationally.
We will not mail your documents back to you if you mail, email, or drop off to us a prepaid return shipping label or customs invoice that wrongly has our company name, phone number, or address listed anywhere on it. FedEx, UPS, and DHL wrongly send us and try to collect from our company unpaid shipping bills because people and companies don’t pay their full shipping charges and customs fees when sending internationally.
■ The U.S Department of State does not and will not give us or anyone (you) status or order updates so we cannot give you order status updates once you place your order with us (welcome to the completely broken federal government system post-COVID). Only on the day the State Department finally issues a federal apostille certificate or authentication certificate on your documents will they notify us.
■ Embassy document filing fees are not included in our flat fee rush Embassy document legalization pricing.
Please click on the 2024 Embassy document filing fees URL below. Then search for what non-Hague Convention member country you want to attest and legalize your documents for. Then add the listed Embassy document filing fee price in the embassy rate field below.
https://www.apostilletexas.org/faqs/embassy-legalization/what-are-the-current-2024-u-s-foreign-embassy-document-filing-fees/
It is currently taking the U.S. Department of State around 4 weeks to issue federal authentication certificates once we rush file your documents with them. All U.S foreign embassies vary greatly in turnaround times from as quick as 3 business days to as slow as 3 weeks to issue legalizations/attestations on your documents once we physically walk in and file your documents at a specific U.S foreign Embassy in Washington D.C.