For work visas, teaching placements, residency and citizenship applications. $190 per document, 5 business days. Serving Sarasota with mobile pickup.
Almost every country that issues a long-stay visa wants a police clearance from where you've been living. For Florida residents that's the FDLE criminal history record — and it has to carry an apostille before a foreign consulate will accept it.
The critical detail: only the certified FDLE record qualifies. The instant online search printout that anyone can generate has no seal and no signature, so the Department of State will reject it. You need the certified version FDLE issues on request, which arrives with an official seal. We review what you've received before filing, carry it to Tallahassee in person, and return it apostilled in 5 business days — which matters, because these documents expire.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Korea, Singapore and most of the EU require an apostilled police clearance in the work permit packet.
TEFL and international school placements pair the apostilled background check with an apostilled degree — the two travel together.
Residency-by-investment and long-stay visa programs in Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy all require apostilled criminal record checks.
Naturalisation files abroad routinely include a police clearance from every country of residence in the applicant's recent history.
Foreign adoption authorities require apostilled background checks for every adult in the household, often with a short validity window.
Healthcare, education and financial licensing boards abroad require a criminal record check authenticated for use in their jurisdiction.
Sarasota is home to roughly 55,000 people, the cultural centre of Florida's southwest coast. Sarasota's population skews affluent, well-travelled and internationally rooted — a large German, British, Canadian and Swiss contingent, plus a professional and arts community with long-standing ties to Europe. The apostille work reflects it: estate and probate records for foreign courts, property powers of attorney, marriage and death certificates for foreign civil registries, and citizenship-by-descent packets.
We serve clients throughout Sarasota's neighborhoods including Downtown Sarasota, Southside Village, Siesta Key, Lido Key and Palmer Ranch. Landmarks like St. Armands Circle, The Ringling and Siesta Key put us on familiar ground — this is local service, not a mail-order processor.
From Sarasota, our Tampa Westshore office is about an hour away — or skip the drive entirely and book mobile pickup; we come to your home or office. We also handle FDLE background check apostille work for clients in nearby Bradenton, Ruskin and St. Petersburg.
The Department of State will only apostille the certified FDLE criminal history record — the version FDLE issues with an official seal and an authorised signature. Request the certified copy specifically when you order; the free instant search result and the standard online printout are not certified and cannot be authenticated no matter how official they look.
Some destinations want an FBI Identity History Summary rather than a state check, and that's a federal document — it goes to the U.S. Department of State in Washington for authentication, not to Tallahassee. A few countries want both. If you're not sure which your consulate expects, tell us the country and the visa type and we'll tell you which route to take before you order anything. Bring the certified record to our Westshore office — about an hour from Sarasota — or book mobile pickup.
Walk in to our Tampa Westshore office or schedule mobile pickup across the Tampa Bay area — 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 office pickup or local return delivery — and you get a call the minute they arrive.
One flat number, nothing bolted on afterward. What we quote is what you pay, and the Florida Department of State's filing fee is already 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 pickup.
Yes — mobile pickup covers Sarasota and the wider Tampa Bay service area. Requests before 2 PM are routinely scheduled same-day, and every request gets a confirmed window within one business hour.
We're at 4830 W Kennedy Blvd, Suite 633K in Tampa's Westshore district — about an hour away from Sarasota. Walk-ins are welcome during business hours, or book mobile pickup and skip the trip entirely.
Pickup to return runs 5 business days anywhere in our service area — the same in-person filing schedule for every city we cover. Facing a tighter deadline? Call and we'll give you a straight answer about what rush handling can realistically deliver.
Request it directly from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and specify that you need the certified copy for apostille purposes. It arrives with FDLE's seal and an authorised signature. Turnaround is typically a few business days, and we can walk you through the request if it's your first time.
No. That printout carries no seal and no signature, so there's nothing for the Department of State to authenticate. It gets rejected at the counter. Only the certified record works — this is the single most common mistake we see on background check requests.
It depends on the country. Many accept a state-level FDLE check; others specifically require the FBI Identity History Summary, which is federal and authenticated in Washington rather than Tallahassee. Some want both. Tell us the destination and visa type and we'll confirm.
Most consulates treat a police clearance as valid for three to six months from issue, and some count from the apostille date instead. Don't order it too far ahead of your filing date — that's the most common reason people end up doing this twice.
It can slow the FDLE search, and a fingerprint-based request usually resolves it cleanly. It has no effect on the apostille step itself — once the certified record is issued, authentication proceeds exactly the same way.
Order the certified criminal history record.
FBI Identity History SummaryThe federal alternative, authenticated in Washington.
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.
Mobile pickupWe come to you, across the Tampa Bay area.
Background checks expire — call and we'll confirm a Sarasota pickup window within one business hour.
