Certified Section 24 — Apostille and Notary | certifiedsection24.com
An ordered procedure from checking the document to applying to the competent authority designated by the issuing state.
Start by confirming that the destination state is a contracting party. As of September 2026, 130 states are contracting parties to the Apostille Convention, and the destination state will not require further certification if the apostille is valid.
Next, identify the class of the document. Civil status records, educational diplomas, court documents and administrative papers are handled differently: some are public documents as issued, others need an official certificate endorsed on a private document first.
If the document is privately signed or is a copy, obtain notarisation before applying for the apostille. A notary public is a public officer who validates signatures, administers oaths and affirmations, takes affidavits and authenticates the execution of certain documents; this is a common-law office and should not be confused with civil-law notaries.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Then locate the competent authority designated by the issuing state. Not every state routes apostilles through the same body, and applying to the wrong authority is one of the typical reasons an application is returned.
Submit the document and pay the fee. Fees range from 0 to 180 USD across contracting states: Italy and Japan charge nothing, the Cayman Islands charge 150 KYD (180 USD), and the 2016 HCCH average across 54 states was 15.43 EUR.
Finally, check the timing rules. For each acceding state, the convention enters into force 60 days after the deposit of its accession, and other contracting states may object during the six months after an accession is deposited; the convention then enters into force 60 days after that period.
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