Here at Manhattan Traveling Notary we offer apostille services.

An Apostille is a method of authenticating documents legally, performed by the New York State Department of State, so that those documents are legally acceptable by foreign banks and financial institutions, foreign educational institutions and universities, foreign businesses and corporations, foreign governments, agencies of foreign governments, and foreign courts. In the United States, the Secretary of State of each state authenticates documents for International use in other countries under authority of the Hague treaty of 1961.

Why Apostilles are Needed for Documents Used in International Transactions?

Apostilles always needed to use contracts and legal documents to be accepted in foreign nations. For example, if a person buys or sells a home in a foreign nation, or a person starts a corporation LLC or business entity in a foreign nation, that person who is an officer or partner or sole member or managing member of an LLC, corporation, or sole proprietorship will need to have the application notarized and apostilled by the Department of State of the State of New York or the state where the person signs the document.

If a person inherits money from an estate in a foreign country, a person will need to have identity documents like a passport, driver's license and birth certificate apostilled in order for the foreign probate court to verify the identity of the person who is a beneficiary of the will.

If a student graduates from a university in the United States and wants to attend a foreign university in another country, say France or Italy, then the student must have the student transcript of grades notarized and apostilled in order to be admitted to the university in France or Italy. The student must also have the student's diploma of graduation notarized and apostilled.

The use of apostilles is to legally verify the authenticity of the signatures of persons signing documents to be used in international transactions so that the documents will be accepted by the other nation where the document is to have some effect.