Apostilles: A Notary's Perspective

I must admit that when I first encountered the term, I was not entirely sure how to pronounce it.  Is it pronounced like the biblical term, apostle?  (UH-PAA-SL)  This is by far the most common question I hear when a client calls my office.  Not only was I not aware of how to pronounce it myself, I also had never heard of the word.  It ends up that learning what the word means and how to pronounce it was the easy part.  The apostille, pronounced (UHH-PAA-STIL), is a term used to describe a process for validating documents being presented to a foreign country.

There is an interesting explanation on how the term was derived and historically utilized.  I will not go into that in this post, but if you enjoy learning like I do, feel free to explore that topic!  The apostille legalization process was created by the 1968 Hague Convention, and it sought to create and simply a uniform document verification process.  Governments around the world have their own respective methods for processing official government records and documents.  The apostille certificate is used to provide a commonly recognized uniform format of details that other countries could recognize.  

The tricky part of the apostille process, is that even though it has been recognized as the uniform official standard among various countries, not all nations have opted in to recognizing this process.  When a foreign government has not opted in to the Hague Convention apostille process, they usually require you to obtain additional certificates, seals, or certifications from their own offices.  Knowing if a country is a participant in the Hague apostille process is not difficult to search for, but without experience you may not understand the additional costs and specialized requirements.  Allowing South Texas Notary, LLC. to handle your apostille legalization is a smart move, and it saves you ample time, money, and effort.