Apostille › Documents
Birth certificate apostille
Your birth certificate is apostilled by the state that issued it — not by the federal government, and not by the state you live in now.
Verified 2026-08-04
This catches people out constantly, because the instinct is to send it wherever you currently live. It does not work that way. If you were born in Texas and live in Florida, your birth certificate goes to Texas.
You usually need a certified copy, not the one in your drawer
States generally will not apostille a hospital souvenir certificate, a photocopy, or an old certificate without the registrar’s current signature. Order a fresh certified copy from the vital records office of the issuing state first. That step alone adds days or weeks, so start it early.
The order things happen in
- Order a certified copy from the issuing state’s vital records office
- Send it to that same state’s Secretary of State for the apostille
- Get it translated if the receiving country requires one
Where the federal government does come in
It does not, for this document. But most residency applications also want an FBI background check, and that one is federal and goes to Washington. Two documents, two different offices, and both usually needed inside the same window.
Fees in the states we have checked
| State | Fee per document | Counter service | |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $20 per apostille | About 30 minutes, Sacramento and Los Angeles. Arrive by 4:30pm. A $6 special handling fee applies in person. | Details → |
| Texas | $15 per document, not per page. Adoption apostilles are $10 per document, capped at $100 per adoption. | Appointments Tuesday to Thursday, walk-ins Monday to Friday. One appointment per person or company per day, and a maximum of ten documents per visit. More than ten can be dropped off and are processed within 72 hours. | Details → |
| Florida | $10 per document. $20 where a Florida Clerk of the Court certified it, because that needs a $10 certificate of incumbency alongside the $10 apostille. | Walk-ins are usually handled while you wait. There is no expedited service of any kind, and requests are worked in the order received. | Details → |
| New York | $10 per document. | Same-day counter service in New York City, Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Utica, capped at ten documents per customer. | Details → |
| Pennsylvania | $15 per document, not per page. | Counter service 8:00 to 4:30, arrive by 4:00. Walk-in requests are processed while you wait. The drop box at 400 North Street is stated as 5 to 7 business days plus mail time. | Details → |
Each figure comes from that state’s own page and carries the date we checked it. States we have not verified are deliberately not listed.
Doing a residency application?
Most applications need an FBI background check alongside this document. That one is federal and goes to Washington. We handle it end to end, and can take the state documents in the same order so there is one deadline instead of several.
Questions
See also federal or state routing.
Can the federal government apostille my birth certificate?
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