An apostille is a form of document authentication issued for use in countries that participate in the Hague Convention of 1961, which abolished the requirement for the legalization of foreign public documents. Apostilles are often needed for graduate programs, employment applications, adoptions, extraditions, and some business transactions abroad. A list of countries who are signatories to the Convention is available here. A more comprehensive description of the apostille is available here, and information related to authentication of academic credentials is here.
Apostille orders must be placed in Parchment.
We prepare the requested documents normally except that the documents are notarized. The credential of the notary public must then be authenticated by the Clerk of Franklin County. After that, these documents are transmitted to the Tennessee Department of State, which provides the apostille and returns the documents and apostille to the University, which in turn sends the whole package on to the designated recipient. If you wish to expedite shipping to the recipient, you may incur additional fees to cover the cost. The process may take three to four weeks to complete.
If the country of intended use does not participate in the Hague Convention, documents being sent to that country can be “authenticated” or “certified.”
The U.S. Department of State also has an Office of Authentications which will provide a federal authentication for specific purposes, for countries which are not part of the Hague Convention, and rarely for a federal Apostille.