What’s the difference between an apostille and a notarization for immigration documents?
Posted by Alive_Assignment_687@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 6 comments
I see this come up a lot, so thought I’d share a quick explanation.
A notarization just means a notary public verified your identity and watched you sign the document. It’s mainly for stuff that stays in the U.S.
An apostille, on the other hand, is what makes that same document valid outside the U.S. — it’s basically an international certification. It comes from the Secretary of State or, for federal papers, the U.S. Department of State.
If you’re sending paperwork abroad (for immigration, study, marriage, etc.), you usually need the apostille — not just a notary stamp.
Has anyone here had issues with a notarized document being rejected overseas?
No-Pea-8967@reddit
I notarised documents for my New Zealand and Panamà visas from the UK. No issues. Those visas required some documents notarised and some apostilled - it depends on the document required.
mangoMandala@reddit
US citizen in Philippines. A bunch of documents needed apostile.
Brought them to US embassy in Manilla. They don't even look at them. Ask you to swear they are true. You give them $50 USD. They put a very official looking stamp on them.
It is procedural busywork here that does nothing meaningful.
godless-wife@reddit
Not everybody is a US citizen, you know.
antizana@reddit
A notarized document (in the US) is a procedure to verify that the person signing the document is the person named in the document. It does not have any bearing on the validity or legality of the contents of a document signed. A US notary has a commission issued by a state government which means notarized documents can be apostilled.
A notary in Germany, for example, is a contracts lawyer who ensures that the contents of the contract is valid and also inscribes it or registers it with a court or other official entity as necessary (for example, wills and testaments, or property sales).
An apostille is a certification by a government that the document in question is a validly issued document from their jurisdiction. Specifically documents from civil registries like birth and death certificates. There is an international treaty that regulates this, in order to have people’s documents recognized abroad. Federal countries like the US have a bit of a challenge in that many documents are issued by a state not the federal government (which is why an embassy will not normally apostille or certify a state driver’s license).
A certified translation is a translation produced by someone who is licensed in a certain jurisdiction to provide that translation. That authority may be similar - or even called the same - as a notary but it is fundamentally different process.
If you are looking to submit documents to a foreign government (ie for immigration purposes), you get the document, you get an apostille, and then you get a certified translation from a translator licensed in your destination country.
If you are looking for certified copies, a notary can certify that a copy is a true copy, and then you can get that notarized true copy an apostille and then a certified translation.
gadgetvirtuoso@reddit
Most countries will reject notarized documents. Don’t even bother with notarizing documents for use overseas. All my documents for Ecuador had to have the apostille. Many require both the document and the apostille to be translated too.
Alive_Assignment_687@reddit (OP)
yes. and some countries require sworn translations of Apostilled documents, like Spain. There is also a difference between state federal Apostilles, depending on the type of document. so you need to know which type of Apostille to get.