Do you need an apostille on a Special Power of Attorney (SPA)?
In order to apostille your special power of attorney, you will first need to meet with a local notary who will notarize your signature on the document.
Once notarized, the next step is to mail in the original notarized document with our order forms to our office for processing. A power of attorney can only be authenticated from the State the document was notarized in. The notary must be commissioned and use proper notarial wording.
The Secretary of State does not have the authority to authenticate documents notarized in other States. For example, if your power of attorney was signed and notarized in the State of California, then your notarized document can only receive a California apostille. Another example is if your power of attorney was signed and notarized in the State of New York, then your notarized document can only receive a New York apostille.
Some States require a notarized document to also be authenticated by the County Clerk before the state will attach the apostille (two steps). These States are: Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, and Tennessee.
We recommend that your power of attorney be prepared by a professional from the Country requesting it. For example, if the Country of the Philippines is requesting a signed and notarized special power of attorney, we recommend that an attorney or paralegal in the Philippines prepare your document. Some US States will not apostille a document written in a foreign language. In order to avoid this, we recommend your documents to be written in English.
If you are located outside of the USA and need to have your signed power of attorney authenticated for a country other than the USA, you can contact the local U.S. Embassy or U.S. Consulate office and meet with a U.S. Federal notary. Once notarized, you can then mail in this document to our Washington DC apostille office for processing.
Obtaining an apostille can be complicated. Don’t leave this process to untrained employees or non-professionals who do not fully understand the Apostille process and the unique requirements of certain countries. Your paperwork could be rejected costing you time and money. Don’t let this happen to you!
Our staff is available Monday-Saturday from 8am to 7pm to answer your questions and provide you easy to follow-step-by-step instructions. Please call us at 1-888-810-4054 or email: support@internationalapostille.com
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