Every Florida-issued and Florida-notarized document, authenticated for use abroad. $190 per document, 5 business days. Serving Lutz 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 Lutz 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.
Population in Lutz runs to roughly 24,000, spanning the Hillsborough and Pasco county line. Lutz sits at the affluent northern edge of Hillsborough County, and its households skew toward executives, physicians and business owners — the profile that generates corporate apostilles, powers of attorney for foreign property, and diploma authentications for professional licensing overseas. It is also one of the strongest sources of apostille search demand in the county's northern tier.
Clients come to us from across Lutz — Cheval, Van Dyke Farms, Lake Fern, Sunset Lakes and Ladera among them. the Suncoast Parkway corridor, Cheval Golf & Country Club and Lake Park are part of the everyday geography here, and we work it in person rather than by post.
It's about 25 minutes away between Lutz and our West Kennedy Boulevard office. Call first and we'll reserve the time before you set off. We also handle apostille work for clients in nearby Northdale, Carrollwood and Wesley Chapel.
Documents leaving Lutz most often head to Italy, Ireland, Switzerland, Canada and the United Kingdom. Executive and professional households here mostly need corporate records, foreign property powers of attorney, and diploma authentication for licensing bodies abroad.
Coming down Dale Mabry or the Suncoast puts Lutz clients at the office in well under half an hour; call ahead and we'll hold the time. 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.
Appointments are confirmed inside one business hour, not the next day. Tell us roughly when suits and we'll fit you in.
We read the document before it travels. Wrong seal, missing notarial wording, a certificate the state won't accept — we catch it here, where fixing it costs nothing.
Your paperwork goes to the Department of State counter in a person's hands, not an envelope. That's the whole reason the timeline is five days instead of several weeks.
Apostilled originals are ready in 5 business days at the Westshore office, and we call as soon as they land.
No courier surcharge, no rush upsell, no handling fee appearing at the end. The figure below covers the work and the state's filing fee together.
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 25 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 Lutz — call and we'll confirm your window within one business hour.
