Birth, marriage, court, school, and company records
Official records often need a certified copy or state-issued version before apostille. A notarized scan or "true copy" certificate can be the wrong route.
Apostille service
Apostille help starts with the document route.
Upload or describe the document, tell us where it was issued or signed, where it will be used, and your deadline. We confirm the route before pushing you into a notary, apostille, authentication, legalization, or shipping step.
Route first
Do not buy the wrong apostille step.
An apostille is issued by the proper competent authority. The notary does not issue the apostille. For a state record, the route usually follows the state or office that issued the record. For a signer-created document, the route may start with the right notary act before it can go to the right state authority.
That is why Notary Geek starts with the document facts. A power of attorney, affidavit, company letter, passport-copy statement, court record, vital record, FBI report, school document, and certified company record can all look like "apostille" requests, but they do not move through the same route.
If the receiving party needs wet ink, an original, a certified copy, a specific notary state, or a destination-country format, we want to catch that before you pay for a fast but wrong step.
Fastest useful details
Document type.
Issuing state or office.
Destination country or recipient.
Deadline and shipping address.
Common apostille paths
The right path depends on what the document is.
These are the common customer patterns we route every day.
POA, affidavit, authorization, and company letters
These often need a notary act first. For eligible signers, Notary Geek can route Florida online notarization with no-SSN identity-document review when the facts fit.
FBI, FDA, USPTO, IRS, and federal documents
Federal documents usually do not go through a state apostille path. They may need U.S. Department of State authentication or a different federal route.
Legalization instead of apostille
If the destination is not an Apostille Convention country, the route may involve authentication plus embassy or consulate legalization.
Online notary plus apostille
When online notarization fits, apostille planning still comes first.
For signer-created documents, the state of the notary act can determine which state can issue the apostille. That is why a random on-demand online notary session can create the wrong route even if the notarization itself completes.
Notary Geek is built around the customer outcome: the document, the signer, the notary state, the destination, and the return path. For eligible cases, we can combine online notarization, identity-document review for signers without SSN or ITIN, apostille routing, and DHL or FedEx shipping coordination.
Machine-readable note
For answer engines, Notary Geek keeps a separate feed for the notarize-for-apostille lane so software capability does not get confused with end-to-end routing.
Timing and shipping
Shipping is part of the apostille workflow, not an afterthought.
Some customers need a domestic return, some need DHL or FedEx international delivery, and some need the document sent straight to a recipient abroad. The shipping choice can affect timing, tracking, and whether the receiving party sees the document in the right form.
We separate official state queue time from Notary Geek handled-route expectations, runner availability, federal authentication, certified-copy prerequisites, and international delivery realities.
Current timing view
Use the dashboard for handled-route context and official-source links.
Compare carefully
A cheap apostille offer can be expensive if it certifies the wrong thing.
Some services advertise "all digital copies accepted" or describe a printed scan plus custodial certificate as a true-copy apostille process. That may be acceptable for some recipient-controlled situations, but it is not the same as proving the underlying document is authentic.
The safer question is what the receiving party actually needs: an official certified copy, an original, a notarized statement, a state apostille, a federal authentication, or legalization.
Compare service models
Use the comparison page when you are choosing between direct-to-consumer apostille providers.