Do you need to apostille a power of attorney?
At International Apostille, we take the guesswork out of obtaining an apostille on your notarized power of attorney documents. We can apostille notarized documents from all 50 States and the District of Columbia (Washington DC).
In order to apostille your power of attorney, you must mail in the original notarized copy to our office for processing. A power of attorney can only be authenticated from the State the documents were notarized in. The notary must be commissioned and use proper notarial wording for their State.
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, the State of California is the only State that can issue the apostille. Another example is if your power of attorney was signed and notarized in the State of New York, only the State of New York can issue the apostille.
Some States require a notarized document to also be authenticated by the County Clerk. These States include: 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 Mexico is requesting a signed and notarized power of attorney, we recommend that an attorney or paralegal in Mexico prepare your document both in English and Spanish. 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 both languages.
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.
Here are a few frequently asked questions…
Question: Does the notarized power of attorney need to be the original?
Answer: Yes, the power of attorney must be the original notarized documents. If you are unable to send in the original, you can copy certify the copy of the power of attorney and mail it in for processing. All documents received at our offices must be signed and notarized.
Question: If my power of attorney was signed and notarized in California, can I obtain a New York apostille?
Answer: No. Only the State the documents were signed and notarized can issue the apostille
What US State are your documents from?
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.
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