An apostille is not the hard part. The hard part is that the document has to physically travel — to us, to a government counter, and then to whoever is waiting for it, often in another country. Most of what goes wrong in this work goes wrong in transit, not at the counter.
Four Ways a Document Reaches Us
There is no single route, and clients often do not realise how many options they have.
A courier you arrange. Plenty of clients send documents by their own courier, including services like Uber’s. We are not a courier company and do not pretend to be one — if a courier suits you, use it.
We collect it. We will come for a document, within reason. We are not going to drive the length of the county for a single envelope, and if you are far out a courier is faster and cheaper for you.
You bring it in. Straightforward, and the fastest way to have us look at a document before anything is committed.
The issuing office sends it straight to us. This is the one most people never think of. When you order a certified copy from vital records or the county clerk, you can have it sent directly to our office. The document goes from the issuing authority to the people who will submit it, and never sits in your hands at all.
The Document Has to Be Collected in Person
Every apostille we handle is collected at a counter, by a person. Which counter depends on the document: the California Secretary of State for a California record, the issuing state’s own office when the record came from somewhere else, and the US Department of State for federal documents.
Those offices do not work alike. Each has its own hours, its own queueing, its own way of calling you forward and handing work back. Knowing how a particular counter actually runs is most of what makes a collection predictable rather than a wasted morning.
We Check the Document Before We Leave the Counter
Apostilles do come back wrong. Not often, but it happens — most often on federal documents from the US Department of State. So we review the document at the window, before leaving the building.
If something is wrong we raise it there, hand it back, and explain what needs correcting. Sometimes it is put right on the spot and we wait for it. Sometimes it means returning another day for the corrected version.
The reason this matters is what the alternative costs. An error found at the counter is an inconvenience. The same error found after the document has been couriered to a client overseas is weeks of lost time and a second round of fees.
Confirming Where It Goes, Before It Goes
An apostilled document is not ordinary post. It is signed for, and we usually send it by FedEx. Before anything ships we confirm the recipient’s name, the delivery address and a telephone number.
Documents going abroad are a different problem again. Some carriers are simply better than others for particular countries and regions, so we look at which one suits the destination rather than defaulting to one. Shipping costs vary a great deal between them, which is why the quotation is usually adjusted once the destination is known.
If a client has a carrier they prefer, we use it — even where our own experience would point somewhere else. It is their document and their decision.
Why Your Tracking Goes Quiet, and Why It Frightens People
If a document is sent abroad by USPS, it does not travel the whole way with USPS. It goes to a US international sorting facility, leaves the country, and on arrival is handed over to the destination country’s own national postal service.
That means two carriers and two tracking numbers. The tracking you were given is the US one, so it will tell you the item reached the sorting facility and then it stops. It will not tell you the document landed in France, or Portugal, or Japan, on any particular day. The trail simply goes cold.
Nothing has gone wrong at that point. But from where the client is sitting it looks exactly like a document has vanished, and we have had people genuinely frightened by it — an irreplaceable record, an appointment abroad, and a tracking page that has not moved in a week.
That is the reason we will usually steer you toward a commercial carrier for anything that matters. One carrier, one number, one continuous trail.
Customs Charges at the Other End
Depending on the destination, the person receiving the document may be asked to pay customs charges before it is released. This catches people out, because nobody expects a paper document to attract anything.
Rules differ by country and change, so check what applies to your destination before you ship, and warn your recipient — so a document is not sitting in a depot waiting for someone who does not know they need to act.
Scans, and Why We Do Not Hold Documents Indefinitely
On a rush job the physical document is often the slowest part. Where that is the problem, we scan both the document and the apostille and send the scan, so the client can forward it immediately instead of waiting for the original to travel.
Some clients work from the scan and never need the original back at all. Where that is the case we confirm it with them and follow the instruction.
We will hold scans, but not forever. We tell clients that scans are destroyed after a set period, and they need to be comfortable with that before we proceed.
And we do not keep large numbers of original documents for long periods. It is not good for the client and it is not good for us if something were to happen to them. Storing other people’s vital records is not the service. We move documents; we do not hold them.
Why the Scan Often Matters More Than It Looks
The usual reason a client needs the scan quickly is translation. A document going abroad often needs a certified or sworn translation as well, and the translation is normally prepared after the apostille is attached, so the apostille is included in what gets translated. Waiting for the physical document to reach you overseas before starting costs that time twice over.
With the scan, the translation can begin while the original is still in transit. Translations are generally accepted as a digital delivery, so in practice the scan is enough to get that half of the job moving.
If you need the originals returned by a particular date, tell us before we start rather than after.
Tell Us Where the Document Is Going
The destination decides almost everything else — which authority, which instrument, whether translation is needed and in what order. Tell us the country, the purpose, and who will be there to receive it. If you are not sure your document will qualify, start there.
Call or text (213) 340-4041 — answered 24/7
5103 West Adams Blvd, Suite 102, Los Angeles, CA 90016