Every Florida-issued and Florida-notarized document, authenticated for use abroad. $190 per document, 5 business days. Serving Riverview 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 Riverview 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.
Riverview counts roughly 110,000 people and stands one of the fastest-growing communities in the Tampa Bay region. Riverview has doubled in size in a generation, and much of that growth is young families and relocating professionals — including a steady flow of military-connected households tied to MacDill. Those are exactly the profiles that need apostilles: children's birth certificates for dual-national passports, marriage certificates for overseas postings, and background checks for international employers.
Across Riverview we handle documents for residents of Winthrop, Panther Trace, Summerfield, Boyette and South Fork. Working near Winthrop Town Centre, the Alafia River and the Big Bend corridor keeps this a local operation rather than a mail-order one.
Our office sits about 30 minutes away from Riverview. We work by appointment, which means no queue at the counter when you get here. The same service runs to Brandon, Ruskin and Valrico just up the road.
Documents leaving Riverview most often head to Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy and Colombia. Military-connected households tied to MacDill drive much of the volume — marriage certificates for overseas postings, children's birth certificates for dual-national passports, and background checks for status-of-forces paperwork.
Riverview is a straightforward run up the Selmon, and same-day appointments are commonly available when booked in the morning. 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.
You come to West Kennedy Boulevard at a time we've reserved for you. One exchange, and the document is in our hands.
Every document is examined before filing — issuing seal, signature, notarial certificate, and the specific requirements of the country it's headed to.
We present the document at the Florida Department of State in person. Nothing sits in a mailroom, and nothing waits behind a batch of other people's paperwork.
The apostilled original is back and ready to collect at the office. You'll hear from us the moment it's in.
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.
Every price covers the $10-per-document Florida Department of State filing fee, in-person submission at the state counter, and complete document handling. If your paperwork needs notarization first, we offer that as a separate add-on service.
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.
Yes — we work by appointment only, which is deliberate: it means no queue when you arrive and no wasted trip from Riverview. Ring us and we'll confirm a time inside one business hour.
about 30 minutes away — on West Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa's Westshore district, at 4830 W Kennedy Blvd, Suite 633K. Call ahead and your slot is reserved before you set off.
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 Riverview — call and we'll confirm your window within one business hour.
