Expat Community > Ecuador

DUNMOVN
Joined 2011
Posts: 1991

APOSTILLE--APOSTLE, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE

12 years ago

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the word APOSTILLE If you Google the word and click on the Wikipedia link, you will find out more than you probably want or need to know. Please do NOT confuse it with the word APOSTLE. APOSTILLE is not a religeous term. First let's clear up what does and does not need to be Apostilled. Document for a VISA do NOT, only for residency. The documents that will need to be Apostilled include in some but not all cases:

Birth Certificates

Divorce papers, if your name was changed

Income verification

Criminal background check

Name change document.

The ONLY place you can get documents Apostilled is with the Secretary of State in the state where they originated. In other words, you CANNOT get a Montana birth certificate apostilled in California, only in Montana. You also need to know that just because a document is NOTARIZED does not mean Apostille is not required. Anyone with a 4th grade education in the US can be a Notary Public and their seal only means that they are certifying that you are who you represent yourself to be. That is not the same as a Secretary of State certifying the legality of a public document.
Only countries that ratified the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, can apostille documents. The Wikipedia link lists the countries that ratified the Hague Convention. Sorry Canadians, your country did not participate.

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