The most requested apostille in the Tampa Bay area — for dual citizenship, foreign marriage, and visa applications. $190 per certificate, 5 business days. Serving Westchase with a booked appointment and our Tampa Westshore office.
Ask a foreign government to accept who you are and the conversation starts with a birth certificate. It is the single most requested document we handle, and it sits underneath almost everything else — a passport application in another country, a residency file, a marriage licence abroad, a child's school enrollment overseas.
Florida-born means the Florida Department of State issues the apostille, but only against a certified copy carrying a registrar's seal. The souvenir certificate from the delivery room does not qualify, and neither does a scan or a laminated version, however official either looks. We read the certificate before it travels, walk it to the state counter in person, and return the apostilled original to Westchase within 5 business days.
The reason we see most. A jure sanguinis application needs the certificate authenticated for the applicant and for every ancestor standing between them and Italy.
Both countries run descent-based routes, including the Sephardic tracks and the shortened path for Latin American nationals. All of them want authenticated U.S. birth records.
A foreign registrar will rarely issue a licence to an American without seeing the birth certificate authenticated, usually alongside proof of single status.
Poland, Ireland, Germany, Lithuania and a dozen others recognise descent. Each generation in the chain has to be evidenced with an authenticated certificate.
Gulf states, South Korea, Singapore and most of the EU fold the birth certificate into the permit file alongside a degree and a police check.
Second passports, enrollment at a school abroad, family reunification petitions — a child's certificate carries the same requirement as an adult's.
Population in Westchase runs to roughly 23,000, a master-planned community in northwest Hillsborough. Westchase draws a professional, well-travelled population — corporate relocations, physicians, and a notable concentration of households with dual nationality or family abroad. It is one of the closest communities to our Westshore office, and one of the most consistent sources of diploma, background check and corporate apostille requests in the county.
Clients come to us from across Westchase — West Park Village, The Greens, Radcliffe and Harbor Links among them. We know the ground around West Park Village, the Westchase Golf Club and the Upper Tampa Bay Trail. That matters more than it sounds: this is a local service, not a mail-in processor.
It's about 15 minutes away between Westchase and our West Kennedy Boulevard office. Call first and we'll reserve the time before you set off. Nearby Town 'n' Country, Carrollwood and Clearwater are served on the same terms.
Documents leaving Westchase most often head to the United Kingdom, Germany, India, Brazil and Canada. Corporate relocations and dual-national households dominate here, which means diplomas, transcripts, background checks and employment-related authentications more than vital records.
Among the closest communities to the office, so a same-day appointment is realistic even on short notice. 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.
The state authenticates a registrar's seal, so a registrar's seal has to be on the paper. In practice that means a certified copy from the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics in Jacksonville or from a county health department vital records office, showing both the seal and an issuing signature. Anything printed at the hospital, however ceremonial it looks, is not a legal record and will not be accepted.
Born in Hillsborough County but don't have a certified copy? You can order one from the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County's vital records office or online through the state Bureau of Vital Statistics. Born in another state? Your birth certificate must be apostilled by that state's Secretary of State — we can point you to the right office. Born abroad? A Consular Report of Birth Abroad is a federal document requiring U.S. Department of State authentication instead. When your certificate is ready, bring it to our Westshore office — about 15 minutes from Westchase — at a time we hold for you.
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.
Each figure includes the state's $10 filing fee per document, hand delivery to the Department of State counter, and all handling from drop-off to return. Notarization, where a document needs it first, is a separate add-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.
A phone call. We'll confirm an appointment at the Westshore office within one business hour and tell you before you set off from Westchase whether your document actually qualifies.
Ours, at 4830 W Kennedy Blvd, Suite 633K in Tampa's Westshore district — about 15 minutes away away. Appointments only, confirmed within one business hour of your request.
Five business days after handoff. The clock is set by the Department of State counter, not by the drive, so Westchase is on the same schedule as the rest of our area. Tight deadline? Ring us and we'll be straight with you about what's possible.
Florida sets no limit, but the receiving country often does. Spain and Italy in particular tend to want a copy issued within the last six to twelve months. If yours has been in a drawer for years, order a fresh one first — it is far cheaper than a refused consular file.
Usually not, as long as it is a certified copy with a seal and signature on it. The occasional snag is an issuing official so old that the state can no longer verify the signature against its records. Requesting a newly issued copy clears that in one step.
Whichever state registered the birth is the state that authenticates it — Ohio records go through Ohio, New York through New York. We work on Florida documents, and if yours belongs elsewhere we will name the office you need rather than leave you searching.
Often. The apostille form itself is multilingual and needs nothing done to it, but the certificate underneath is in English and most non-English-speaking authorities expect a certified translation with it. We arrange that alongside the filing.
Yes, and either parent can bring it in. Children's certificates make up a large share of this work — second passports and foreign school enrollment more than anything else.
Order certified Florida birth certificates.
Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough CountyLocal vital records office for Hillsborough-born residents.
Florida Department of StateThe office that issues the apostille itself.
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 Westchase — call and we'll confirm your window within one business hour.
