Every Florida-issued and Florida-notarized document, authenticated for use abroad. $190 per document, 5 business days. Serving Bradenton with a booked appointment and our Tampa Westshore office.
An apostille is the certificate the Florida Department of State attaches to a document so that another Hague Convention country will accept it as genuine. Without it, a Florida birth certificate, diploma, background check or power of attorney is just paper once it leaves the United States. With it, foreign consulates, civil registries, universities and courts treat it as verified.
The document itself never leaves our hands until it's filed. We review what you have before anything moves — the certification, the notarization, and what your destination country actually expects — then carry it to the Department of State counter in Tallahassee in person. No mail-in queue, no batching. For Bradenton residents that means one appointment at our Westshore office, and the apostilled original back in your hands in 5 business days.
Italian, Spanish, Polish, Irish, German, Portuguese and Lithuanian citizenship-by-descent applications all begin with apostilled U.S. vital records — usually one per generation.
Work visa packets for the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Korea, Singapore and most of the EU require an apostilled degree and a background check at minimum.
Foreign civil registries generally won't issue a marriage licence to a U.S. citizen without an apostilled birth certificate and a single-status affidavit.
Buying, selling or inheriting property abroad usually runs through an apostilled power of attorney. Corporate filings and certificates of good standing follow the same route.
Family reunification, residency and consular petitions filed in another country ask for apostilled birth, marriage and police records from the U.S. side.
Foreign universities and ministries of education want an apostilled diploma and transcript before admitting a student or recognising a credential.
With roughly 57,000 residents, Bradenton sits the county seat of Manatee County. Manatee County's apostille demand is driven by two very different populations: a large Mexican and Guatemalan agricultural community in the eastern part of the county, and an affluent, heavily international retiree and second-home population in Lakewood Ranch and along the coast. Between them they generate a steady mix of Spanish-language vital records and estate, probate and property documents bound for Europe and Canada.
Our work in Bradenton spans Downtown Bradenton, West Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch and Palma Sola and the streets between them. the Bradenton Riverwalk, Anna Maria Island and Lakewood Ranch are part of the everyday geography here, and we work it in person rather than by post.
The Westshore office is about 45 minutes away from Bradenton. Appointments are confirmed within one business hour, so the drive is never wasted. The same service runs to Sarasota, Ruskin and St. Petersburg just up the road.
Documents leaving Bradenton most often head to Mexico, Guatemala, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada. Two distinct streams meet here — Spanish-language vital records from the eastern agricultural communities, and estate, probate and property documents from Lakewood Ranch and the coast.
Manatee clients come up I-275. Book ahead, and let us check the document by phone first — it is a long drive to discover a problem. Whichever route you take, the document is filed in person at the Florida Department of State rather than mailed, which is what holds the return to 5 business days.
Two categories of document qualify. The first is a Florida public record — a birth, marriage or death certificate, a divorce decree, an FDLE background check, or a certified court record — which must be a certified copy carrying the issuing official's seal and signature. The second is any document signed in front of a Florida notary: a power of attorney, an affidavit, a travel consent, a corporate resolution, or a copy certification.
What does not qualify: photocopies, hospital keepsake certificates, laminated documents, documents issued by another state, and federal records. Out-of-state documents must be apostilled by the state that issued them, and federal records — FBI checks, naturalisation certificates, Consular Reports of Birth Abroad — go to the U.S. Department of State instead. We'll tell you which bucket yours falls in before you spend a dollar.
Call or send a request and we'll hold an appointment at our Tampa Westshore office — confirmed within one business hour.
Before anything is filed, we vet the document itself — the certification, the notarization, and what your destination country expects — so rejections don't happen.
We hand-carry your paperwork to the Florida Department of State counter ourselves. No mail-in pile, no batch processing, nothing left to chance.
Your apostilled originals come back in 5 business days, ready for collection at the office — and you get a call the minute they arrive.
You are told the number before we take the document, and it does not move. The state's per-document filing fee is already counted inside it.
The $10 Florida Department of State fee is built into every price, along with in-person filing and end-to-end handling of the document. Documents that require notarization first can have that added on.
Grab the Apostille and Notarial Certificate Request Form from the Florida Department of State here. There's no need to fill it out ahead of time — we'll complete it with you at your appointment.
Call or send a request and we'll hold a time at the Tampa Westshore office. Appointments are confirmed within one business hour, so you'll know your slot the same day rather than waiting on a callback.
Ours, at 4830 W Kennedy Blvd, Suite 633K in Tampa's Westshore district — about 45 minutes away away. Appointments only, confirmed within one business hour of your request.
No. Every city we cover runs on the same 5-business-day schedule, because the document is hand-filed in Tallahassee regardless of where it was collected. If your deadline is shorter than that, call — we'll tell you plainly whether rush handling can meet it.
It's a standardised certificate created by the 1961 Hague Convention that verifies the signature and seal on a public document, so member countries accept it without any further legalisation. The Florida Department of State issues it for Florida documents. It doesn't certify that the contents are true — only that the signature and seal on it are genuine.
Through us, 5 business days from drop-off to return. Mailing it to Tallahassee yourself typically runs several weeks once postal transit and the state's processing queue are added together, and a rejected submission restarts the whole clock.
$190 per document, which includes the state's $10 filing fee. Two documents are $300, and three or more drop to $130 each. There are no courier surcharges, rush upsells or handling fees layered on afterward.
Then it needs authentication rather than an apostille: the Florida Department of State certifies it, the U.S. Department of State authenticates it, and the destination country's embassy legalises it. Canada, China, the UAE and several others sit outside the convention or have their own procedures. Tell us the destination and we'll map the full chain.
Yes. A large share of the Tampa Bay work we handle is Spanish-language — actas de nacimiento, poderes notariales and antecedentes penales bound for Latin America and Spain. We can also coordinate the certified translation when the destination country requires one.
The office that issues the apostille itself.
Hillsborough County Clerk of CourtCertified copies of local court records and marriage certificates.
Florida Bureau of Vital StatisticsOrder certified Florida vital records.
One flat rate, volume bundles, and the few things that add cost.
Processing timeThe 5-day timeline vs the mail-in queue.
Same-day & rush serviceA straight answer on what a tight deadline allows.
Booking an appointmentHow office visits work, and what to bring.
Same-day appointments available for Bradenton — call and we'll confirm your window within one business hour.
