Apostille is a French word, which means a certification. It is commonly used in English to refer to the legalization of a document for international use under the terms of the 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents.
Documents which have been notarized by a notary public, and certain other documents, and then certified with a conformant Apostille are accepted for legal use in all the nations that have signed the
Hague Convention.
In the United States Apostilles are issued by the Secretary of State.
For specific information on a particular state please click here: