What is an apostille — and how is it different from notarization?
These are two different steps that often need to happen in sequence. A notarization is what makes your document legally recognized in the United States. An apostille is what makes it legally recognized in another country. You need both — in that order — for international use.
A Massachusetts-commissioned notary verifies your identity and witnesses your signature. Confirms who you are and that you signed voluntarily.
Issued by: A commissioned Massachusetts notary public
Valid in the United StatesThe Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth certifies the notary’s credentials. This authentication certificate is recognized by 120+ Hague Convention countries.
Issued by: Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth
Valid in 120+ countriesDocuments we apostille from Massachusetts.
Every document type requires a specific preparation step. We confirm requirements for your document before starting.
Original certified copy from the Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records. Goes directly to apostille — no notarization step. Most common request from Merrimack Valley families.
For couples relocating overseas, applying for foreign citizenship or registering marriages abroad. Certified copy from the city or town clerk — not a photocopy.
Required for international estate settlements, foreign property transfers and dual citizenship matters. Certified copy from the Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records.
Uses a federal apostille through the US Department of State — not the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Processing: 4 to 8 weeks. Our partner Apostilledepot.com handles channeled submissions.
For graduate school applications abroad, foreign teaching certifications and international professional licensing. We notarize the certified copy, then apostille through the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
For overseas property management, inheritance proceedings and international financial matters. Notarized first at Tewksbury Notary, then apostilled through the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
Articles of incorporation, certificates of good standing, corporate resolutions and contracts for international business filings. Officer signatures notarized, then apostille through the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
Home study reports, background checks, financial statements and court orders for international adoption cases. Document-by-document requirements vary by country. Confirmation before starting.
From your hand to a foreign government in five steps.
We handle courier service to the Secretary of the Commonwealth — you do not need to make the trip to Boston. We confirm which steps apply to your specific document before starting.
Original certified copies only — no photocopies. We confirm the document type, jurisdiction and which steps apply at your appointment. Call 978-424-4629 with your document type and destination country before booking for a specific quote.
Personal documents and most business records require a notary signature before apostille submission. Vital records with official state seals skip this step and go directly to Step 3. Notarization at our Tewksbury office is $45 per act.
We prep the complete package and courier to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office in Boston. You do not need to make the trip. We track the submission and confirm receipt.
The Secretary of the Commonwealth verifies the notary’s credentials and attaches the Hague Apostille Certificate. The $6 state fee applies per document. Standard: 5 to 10 business days. Expedited: 2 to 3 days. Same-day walk-in: 1 to 2 hours.
Apostilled document returned to you at our Tewksbury office, or shipped via FedEx, UPS or USPS with tracking. For non-Hague country destinations requiring consular legalization, we advise on the next steps before delivery.
Realistic timelines and what you will pay.
We coordinate a walk-in appointment at the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Boston office. Best for urgent departures or filings. Call early — morning calls allow for afternoon apostille.
Most common option. We notarize, submit by courier and return the apostilled document to you. Tracking provided throughout.
Available for an additional fee through the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s expedited service. Confirmed at booking.
FBI background checks use the US Department of State — not the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Our partner Apostilledepot.com handles channeled submissions for faster turnaround.
Hague Convention vs non-Hague countries.
The Hague Apostille Convention covers 120+ countries. Countries outside the convention require a longer authentication process. For Merrimack Valley families with international ties, knowing which applies prevents wasted time.
Hague countries — apostille applies
Your notarized Massachusetts document plus an apostille from the Secretary of the Commonwealth is recognized without further authentication.
MV Frequently needed by Merrimack Valley communities
Non-Hague countries — consular legalization required
After notarization, the document requires state authentication and then legalization by the destination country’s embassy or consulate in the US.
Each country has specific embassy requirements. Call us with the country name and document type — we confirm which process applies before you start.
Our specialist partner Apostilledepot.com operates from the same Tewksbury office. They handle the full apostille pipeline for documents from all 50 states, FBI background checks through the US Department of State, and certified translation in 120+ languages. Same expert team. National reach.
Prepare the document right. Everything after goes fast.
The single largest source of apostille delay is not the state office. The document itself arrives in the wrong form. The Secretary of the Commonwealth authenticates one thing only: a signature already on file in Boston. For a notarized document, the notary’s signature. For a certified record, the clerk’s or registrar’s signature. When the paper you hand us carries the wrong signature, or no qualifying signature at all, no amount of expediting rescues the request.
The appointment itself is the easy part. You come to 1215 Main St, Unit 115 in Tewksbury, inside the Neighborhood Parcel building with free parking at the door. We verify identity, perform whatever notarization the packet needs, complete the state request forms and package everything for the courier run to Boston. You receive tracking in both directions and a written quote before anything starts. Most in-office visits finish in under twenty minutes.
Preparation is where the work lives, and it differs by document type. Here is what each category needs before your appointment.
Birth, marriage and death certificates
Order a certified copy from the city or town clerk where the event was recorded, or from the Registry of Vital Records and Statistics. The Secretary authenticates the clerk’s signature on the certified copy. A notarized photocopy of a vital record gets rejected. Some countries prefer long-form records, so confirm the format with the receiving authority before you order.
Diplomas, transcripts and school records
The school’s registrar or another authorized official signs a certification statement, and a notary acknowledges the official’s signature. Contact the registrar’s office first. Most Massachusetts colleges handle these requests weekly and know the drill. If the school no longer exists or will not cooperate, ask the receiving authority what substitute they accept before spending money on the wrong path.
Powers of attorney, affidavits and personal documents
Bring these unsigned. You sign at the appointment with valid government-issued photo ID, we notarize, and the document is ready for submission the same day. Every person named as a signer must appear. When a foreign attorney or agency drafted the document, bring their instructions too, since the receiving side decides which notarial act they require.
Certified translations
Many destination countries expect the document, the apostille cover requirements, or both in their own language. A certified translation includes the translator’s signed accuracy statement, which we notarize before submission. Our office pairs this with certified translation service handled by the same team, and appointments run fully in Arabic or French when preferred.
Federal documents
FBI background checks, IRS letters and other federal-agency documents do not go to the Massachusetts Secretary at all. They are authenticated by the U.S. Department of State in Washington. People regularly pay for the state process, wait two weeks, and learn the document was federal the whole time. Tell us what you have and we confirm the correct track before you spend anything.
Court and probate documents
Divorce decrees, name-change orders, probate appointments and similar records need a certified copy from the clerk of the issuing court, complete with the court’s seal. The Secretary authenticates the clerk’s signature. Plain photocopies, even notarized ones, do not qualify. Request the certified copy from the courthouse first, then bring it to us for submission.
For a deeper look at how certified copies of vital records work, read our guide on how to apostille a birth certificate. For document-by-document costs, view current notary pricing or call for a written quote.
The six situations behind most apostille requests.
Apostille needs cluster into a handful of recurring situations, and each one carries its own document list and its own traps. Recognize yours below and you already know most of what the first phone call will cover.
Portugal, Italy, Brazil and other ancestry programs want birth and marriage certificates for multiple generations, each as a certified copy, each apostilled. Consulates compare names letter by letter across the packet, so resolve spelling differences before submission, not at the interview.
Selling a family home in Lebanon or Brazil, or managing land in India, usually runs through a power of attorney drafted by an attorney in the destination country. You sign here, we notarize and apostille, and a certified translation often rides along in the same packet.
Foreign employers and licensing boards typically want an authenticated degree plus a background check. State-issued checks route through Boston. FBI checks are federal and take the Department of State track, which runs weeks longer, so start with the deadline in view.
Marrying overseas usually calls for a birth certificate and a single-status affidavit. Freshness windows are the trap here, since several countries expect these issued within a set number of months before the ceremony. Confirm the window first, then order the documents.
Settling an estate with relatives abroad, or collecting a foreign pension, brings death certificates, heirship affidavits and bank forms through our office. These packets mix certified records with notarized signatures, and each piece follows its own preparation rule.
Study-abroad programs, foreign school enrollments and au pair placements ask for school records, consent documents and sometimes medical authorizations. Schools move slowly in summer, which is exactly when these requests spike, so build in lead time.
Two of these situations often arrive together. A dual citizenship applicant marrying abroad, or a family settling an estate while selling the property behind the inheritance, ends up running two packets on two timelines. We map the whole sequence at the first appointment so a document ordered for one purpose gets certified in a form the second purpose accepts too.
Traveling internationally with children brings its own paperwork. Our guide to notarizing international travel documents covers consent letters and what border officials expect to see.
Six patterns behind rejected apostille requests.
The Secretary’s office does not reject paperwork at random. After years of apostille appointments since 2007, the same handful of problems accounts for nearly every rejection we hear about, and every one of them is preventable at the preparation stage. Check your document against this list before anything gets mailed to Boston. A rejection is never only about the fee. It resets the clock on a consulate appointment, a foreign closing date or a semester start, and those dates rarely move to accommodate paperwork.
1. A notarized photocopy of a vital record
Massachusetts notaries cannot certify copies of birth, marriage or death certificates, and the state will not apostille one. The fix costs less than the failed attempt: order a certified copy from the town clerk, which carries a signature the Secretary recognizes.
2. Missing or defective notarial wording
A signature with a stamp but no notarial certificate, wording missing required elements, or a notary whose commission lapsed before the date on the document. The state checks the certificate language and the commission record, and either problem stops the request.
3. Signing before you were told to
Some notarial acts require signing in the notary’s presence. Unless the receiving agency instructs otherwise, arrive with the document unsigned. Re-executing a document a second time is awkward at best, and with some foreign agencies a dated signature mismatch raises questions later.
4. The wrong state entirely
Each state authenticates only its own officials. A document notarized in New Hampshire, or a certified record issued by another state’s clerk, goes to that state’s authority, not to Boston. Households near the border hit this one often. We check the origin of every document before submission.
5. Name mismatches
The name on the ID says one thing, the document says another. Marriages, hyphenations and transliterated spellings from Arabic or French language records are the usual culprits. Sort the discrepancy out before notarization, because a foreign registry will compare every document in the packet against your passport.
6. A stale document
Several countries expect certain records, background checks and single-status affidavits among them, to be issued within a recent window before filing. The apostille itself does not expire, but the underlying document effectively does. Confirm the freshness requirement with the receiving authority before you order anything.
Before any document leaves our office, we run the same checks the state will: which state’s officials signed it, whether the notarial certificate carries the required wording, whether the commission was active on the signing date, whether names match across the packet and the ID, and what the destination country layers on top. Catching a problem at the counter costs a conversation. Catching one in Boston costs two weeks and a second courier fee. This is the reason we ask for the destination country on the first call rather than after the paperwork comes back.
Plan backwards from the foreign deadline, not forward from today. Ordering a certified copy from a town clerk takes time, more when the record is old or the office is small. State processing runs 5 to 10 business days on the standard track, plus courier time in both directions, and expedited handling exists when the calendar is unforgiving, including coordinated same-day walk-ins at the Boston office. Our full-service package runs $95 to $175 per document, covering notarization at $45 per act where needed, the $6 state fee, processing and courier service, with a written quote before you commit.
Not sure whether you need an apostille at all? Start with our plain-English guide to notarization versus apostille in Massachusetts. Sending documents to China, the UAE or another non-Hague destination? Read the consular legalization guide for non-Hague countries, then schedule an appointment when you are ready.
Apostille questions, answered.
What is an apostille and when do I need one?
What is the difference between notarization and apostille?
How long does apostille processing take in Massachusetts?
Do vital records like birth certificates need notarization before apostille?
Which countries accept Massachusetts apostilles?
Do you handle apostilles for documents from other states?
Can I use a RON-notarized document for apostille?
How much does apostille service cost?
Related guides on apostille and international documents.
All guides →One appointment. We handle the rest.
You come to us for the notarization. We courier to the Secretary of the Commonwealth. Written quote before we start. Arabic and French fluent. By appointment only.
1215 Main St, Unit 115 · Tewksbury MA 01876 · By appointment only · Mon–Fri 10 AM–5 PM · Sat/Sun mobile with surcharges