Do it yourself

In the State of Florida, apostilles are issued by the office of Ken Detzner, Secretary of State, with the assistance of the office of Division of Corporations.

Documents must comply with the following guidelines:

  • In order to be acceptable documents need to be notarized with the commission of a Florida notary and certified as true with a notarial certificate by a Florida Notary Public.
  • Only documents written in English are acceptable for apostille.
  • Only documents notarized in Florida can be submitted for apostille in Tallahassee.
  • Signatures acceptable for apostille purposes for birth and death certificates are the signature of the State Registrar, C. Meade Grigg, obtained from the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Jacksonville, Florida, and also the signatures of: Oliver Board, Charles Mahan and Edward Williams. Signature of a local health officer is not acceptable for apostille in Florida.
  • Death certificates need to have been issued within the last 10 years to be acceptable for apostille.
  • Business documents need to be signed by the Secretary of State or competent authority to be acceptable for apostille.
  • Automobile car titles need to be certified by the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles to be acceptable for apostille.
  • Academic documents such as diplomas and transcripts need to be notarized in the presence of a custodian of records from the school registrar that will sign a letter before a notary stating the transcript is a true original at the time of issuance. Only in these conditions will be acceptable for apostille.

There are four types of notarial certificates that can be submitted for apostille: Attested Copy, Oath or Affirmation, Acknowledgment of Individual Capacity and Acknowledgment of Representative Capacity.

Apostille Florida contacts:

Visit in Person:
Division of Corporations
Clifton Building, Apostille Section
2661 Executive Center Circle
Tallahassee, FL 32301

Mail documents to:
Department of State
Division of Corporations
Apostille Certification
P.O. Box 6800
Tallahassee, FL 32314-6800
Phone:  850-245-6945

Website: http://notaries.dos.state.fl.us/notproc7.html

Price and processing time:
Price is between $10 -$20 per apostille depending on your document, with payment to the “Department of State”.
Processing time is between 5 to 7 business days.