Notarization vs. Apostille: Why a Notary Alone May Not Be Enough

2 separate steps

First comes the notarization. The notary public checks your photo ID and notarizes your signature. For the California Secretary of State to apostille the document later, the notarial certificate has to be in English. The rest of the document can be in any language.

Then comes the apostille from the Secretary of State. It certifies the notary's signature and seal and confirms that the notary acted in that capacity. The Secretary of State doesn't perform notarizations, so the document has to arrive already notarized, and the steps can't be done in reverse order.

What an apostille won't fix

An apostille doesn't confirm that the text is correct. If a name is misspelled, the property details are wrong, or a power your representative needs is missing, the apostille leaves all of that as it was. Problems like these may come to light only abroad, after the document has made the whole trip.

That's why people usually settle the wording before signing, with the representative, notary, or institution in the destination country that will use the document. Some government agencies and banks have their own requirements for how a document is worded.

How it works with us

Our notary public, Denis Cherkasskikh, holds California commission No. 2501705 and notarizes signatures at our Sacramento office. If the document needs an apostille, we then file it in person at the Secretary of State's counter in Sacramento.

If your document was notarized by another California notary, mail it to us for the apostille. The Secretary of State attaches the apostille with an ordinary staple, and in countries of the former Soviet Union a stapled document sometimes raises questions. For a document like that, we can stitch and bind the pages after the apostille is attached. We leave the Secretary of State's staple in place, and the binding goes on top of it, so the apostille stays attached to the document.

Prices

• Signature notarization at our office: $15 per signature.
• Apostille on a document already notarized by a California notary public: $120, state fee included, 1-3 business days.
• Optional binding after the apostille: $30.
• Document notarized in another state: the apostille comes from that state, and we handle it for $160.