Florida apostille service without the trip to Tallahassee

Who issues apostilles in Florida

Florida apostilles are issued by the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, through its Apostille Section in Tallahassee. The section certifies signatures of Florida notaries, the State Registrar of Vital Statistics, county Clerks of Court, public school registrars and other Florida officials. It will not touch federal records or documents from other states.

The walk-in counter is at The Centre of Tallahassee, 2415 N. Monroe Street, Suite 810, and mail goes to P.O. Box 6800, Tallahassee, FL 32314-6800. The section answers at 850-245-6053 and keeps an 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM schedule on weekdays, closed on state holidays.

Florida uses two certificates. Documents for a Hague member get an apostille. Documents for a country outside the Convention, such as the United Arab Emirates or Haiti, get a notarial certificate, which then continues to embassy legalization. Either way, the request form asks you to name the destination country so the section knows which certificate to attach.

What the section refuses is just as specific. It sends federal documents, including FBI background checks and naturalization certificates, to the U.S. Department of State. It points out-of-state records to the competent authority of that state. And it will not certify a photocopy of a public record, only an original certified copy or an original notarized document.

Florida documents we apostille

We apostille Florida vital records, court records, notarized documents, school records, vehicle titles and Sunbiz business records. Each one has to carry the right Florida signature before Tallahassee will certify it, so the issuing office matters as much as the document itself.

• Birth and death certificates signed by the State Registrar, ordered from the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Jacksonville or from one of Florida's 67 county health departments. See our birth certificate apostille guide and death certificate apostille service.
• Marriage and divorce certificates signed by the State Registrar or by the Clerk of the County Court. Our marriage certificate apostille and divorce decree apostille pages explain which version to order.
• Court records such as final judgments, name changes and probate orders, certified by the Clerk of the Circuit Court. These carry the $20 fee.
• Notarized documents like a power of attorney, an affidavit, a travel consent for a child or a notarized passport copy, signed before a commissioned Florida notary.
• School transcripts and diplomas. Public schools and universities provide a transcript signed by the registrar or another issuing official and notarized. Private schools use a printed copy that the student or custodian attests and signs before a notary. Details are on our transcript and diploma page.
• Vehicle titles certified by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, useful when a car is being registered abroad.
• Business records from the Division of Corporations itself, such as certified copies of articles and certificates of status for Florida LLCs and corporations. Our corporate apostille service covers the full set.

Florida records rarely cover everything a foreign file needs. An FBI background check is handled through our FBI report apostille service, because it needs the federal Office of Authentications rather than Tallahassee.

Florida requirements that trip people up

Four Florida rules decide whether a request goes through cleanly: the clerk fee, the check-only payment, the notary's full statement and Florida's limits on what a notary may copy. Get those four right and you avoid the common Tallahassee returns.

The $20 clerk rule

Any document certified by a Florida Clerk of Court needs a Certificate of Incumbency on top of the apostille, so the fee doubles to $20. Send $10 for a clerk-certified divorce judgment and the request stalls.

Checks and money orders only

The Department of State takes a check or money order payable to the Florida Department of State, drawn on a U.S. bank in U.S. dollars. It does not accept cash or credit cards. If you are also ordering a certificate of status or certified copy from the Division of Corporations, that fee goes on a separate check.

A complete notarial certificate in English

Florida wants the full notarial statement with the notary's original signature, stamp and seal, written in English. A bare stamp with no wording, or a certificate in another language, is sent back.

What a Florida notary cannot copy

Chapter 117 of the Florida Statutes bars notaries from certifying copies of birth, death and marriage certificates, naturalization certificates, court documents, clerk-recorded documents, filed tax returns, Florida professional licenses and other government public records. The fix is an original certified copy from the issuing office, not a notarized photocopy.

Getting a certified copy in Florida

Florida birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates come from the Florida Department of Health's Bureau of Vital Statistics at 1217 N. Pearl Street in Jacksonville, from a county health department, or online through VitalChek, the state's only contracted vendor. For an apostille, the copy must carry the State Registrar's signature.

Walk-in hours in Jacksonville run 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, and mail orders go to P.O. Box 210, Jacksonville, FL 32231-0042. As listed by the Department of Health in 2026, a computer-generated birth certificate costs $9, each extra copy $4 and a certified photocopy of the original record $14, plus an optional $10 rush fee. Standard processing for the computer-generated version is 3 to 5 business days before shipping. Births less than 125 years old are confidential, so only the registrant, a parent, a guardian or a legal representative can order one.

Two version notes save time. The Department of State warns that county-issued birth records for births before 2004 contain limited information, so check with the consulate before relying on one. And the Bureau holds marriage records only from June 6, 1927 onward. Earlier marriages come from the clerk of court in the county that issued the license. The Florida Department of Health birth certificate page lists current fees and forms.

How long a Florida apostille takes

Florida's timing is simple. Mailed requests are handled in the order they arrive, which ran about five business days in June 2026, and most walk-in requests are finished while you wait at the Monroe Street counter.

Florida does not list an expedite fee, so the real variables are transit and preparation. A prepaid airbill in the envelope speeds the return trip, and a document that needs a fresh certified copy from Jacksonville adds that office's own 3 to 5 business days plus shipping.

With us, Economy runs 1 to 3 weeks with first-class mail back to you, and Express runs 1 to 5 business days in most states with priority mail. We confirm the expected date for your Florida document during the free review, before you pay. Same-day rush is limited to Massachusetts and New Hampshire documents, so it does not apply to Florida papers. For a broader comparison of state queues, read how long an apostille takes.

What a Florida apostille costs

Florida charges $10 per apostille or notarial certificate, and $20 for documents certified by a county Clerk of Court, as published by the Department of State in 2026. Our Economy package is $149.95 and Express is $199.95 per document, and either Florida fee is already inside that price.

The package also covers the free document review, the request form, filing, your online order tracker and return mail (first-class on Economy, priority on Express). What sits outside it: a new certified copy from Jacksonville or a county health department, a certified translation if the destination wants one, and courier upgrades for international delivery. Documents headed to a non-Hague country need embassy legalization after the Florida notarial certificate, and we quote that per country (see apostilles for non-Hague countries). If you are sending several Florida documents at once, ask us about a volume discount.

Getting a Florida apostille without visiting Tallahassee

You do not need to be in Florida, or even in the United States, to get a Florida apostille. Mail the certified copy to our office at 1215 Main St, Unit 115, Tewksbury, Massachusetts, and we file it with Tallahassee and ship the result to your address anywhere in the world.

That suits people with Florida paperwork who now live somewhere else: former Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville residents working abroad, retirees who moved back north, and families building a citizenship file from a grandparent's Florida birth record. A Miami family moving to Spain, a Tampa retiree applying for residency in Portugal and an Orlando couple marrying in Italy all start with the same Tallahassee certificate. Our guides for Spain, Portugal and Italy list what each country asks for, and the Hague country list confirms whether you need an apostille at all.

When you are ready, fill in the apostille application form or start with a photo through our free document review. Every other document type we cover is on our apostille services hub.