Apostille on an Original or a Copy? What California Accepts

What the Secretary of State accepts

Under the Secretary of State's rules, the document has to be signed by a California public official or be an original notarized or certified document. A photocopy isn't acceptable.

The Hague Conference's Apostille Handbook explains why: in most member countries, a simple photocopy isn't considered a public document and has to be properly certified before an apostille can be issued.

A certified copy works like an original

A certified copy of a U.S. birth certificate is an official copy issued by the agency that keeps the record. In California, that's the county recorder or the California Department of Public Health. This is the copy that gets the apostille. A printout of a scan you made at home won't replace it, even if it looks the same.

Marriage certificates have a catch of their own. The keepsake certificate you receive at the ceremony isn't a certified copy, so it can't be apostilled.

Whose signature is on the certificate

With California birth and death certificates, it also matters who signed them. The Secretary of State certifies the signatures of county clerks, county recorders, and the State Registrar. If your certificate was issued by a city or county office and signed by a local registrar, you may need an extra step first: have it certified by the clerk of the county where it was issued, or order a new certified copy from the county recorder or the California Department of Public Health. Our article on why apostille requests get rejected covers this in more detail.

Don't notarize a document just in case

An extra notarization won't turn the wrong copy into the right one. With federal documents, it can do real harm: the U.S. Department of State warns that notarizing an original federal document makes it invalid. Send an FBI background check exactly as you received it.

Ask the recipient first which version they need: the original, a certified copy, or a notarized copy. If you can't give up the original, ask whether a notarized copy with an apostille will do. Ours costs $170. If the copy is going to Ukraine or to a country that accepts documents in Russian, such as Russia, Belarus, or Kazakhstan, that price also covers a translation of the apostille into the language of your document.

What to send us

A scan of both sides of the document, plus the name of the destination country. We'll check whose signature is on it and tell you whether this copy qualifies for a California apostille at $120 or needs an extra step first.