Dear Mr. Crampton,
I own a private boutique expediting service tailored specifically to obtaining Apostille birth certificates for those born in New York and wishing to get married in a Gallic country. We are based in beautiful River Hills, Wisconsin but count ourselves absolument part of the moving circus.
We look forward to working with you.
Very truly yours,
Ms C Gelly
Apostille specialist
Gelly International

I am in need of help. I work for a manufacturing copy. My manager has asked me to find a place in the Dallas Texas area that I can get an apostille. I am at my wits end. Everyone I call seems to have no idea what I am talking about. Can you help me?

Thank you,

Roxy Reynolds
214-239-2272

Sorry, I’m no expert on getting apostilles outside of my NY experience.

Perhaps someone else reading this blog would know. You might want to contact a lawyer in Dallas.

Good luck and my sympathies in figuring out the system!

Thomas hi,
I have a question out to you:
I need an Apostille for my son’s birth certificate for the Netherlands. The thing is that we are currently overseas in israel. We have the original birth certificate with us. The question is, do we need to go through all the steps or just to the last one-NY Dept of State.

Kind regards,

Y.Amon

Hello Y. Amon!

Based on my conversations with the NY authorities, you need to send the long form birth certificate with what is called a Letter of Exemplification to be notarized by the Manhattan county clerk.

If you have the Letter of Exemplification and long form birth certificate, you can start at step 2.

If you do not have the letter, you must return to step 1.

In your case, I think the best number to call is the NY Dept of State to get clarification.

New York Department of State: (518) 474-8642

To accomplish all this from overseas, I recommend using a friend or relative to post things.

Good luck!

Tom

I don’t think you used quite the right word for what the New York County Clerk (informally, Manhattan County Clerk) does to the document. The New York County Clerk does not notarize the letter of exemplification, they “authenticate notary signatures or the signatures of public officials on documents” (http://www.nycourts.gov/supctmanh/notary_public.htm). More information about the apostille can be found at http://www.dos.state.ny.us/corp/apostile.htm.

The way I understand the process, the New York County clerk knows who the public officials are at the department of health, so they can authenticate the signatures of these officials. The Department of State does not know who the health department officals are, but they do know who the County Clerks are, so they can issue an apostille that verifies the signature of the County Clerk (or assistants).

Thomas,
Can you tell us how long it took from beginning to end?

–Quesney

Once I had all the information above, it took about 4 weeks. You could likely do it more quickly by using Fedex or having someone in NY carry it from office to office.

Good luck!

(Personal to Thomas)

You were lucky that the French authorities accepted the document in english.

When I lived in France in 1955-1962 only documents in French were accepted. That would mean that you would still need to:

- Have the birth certificate, notary statement and apostille all translated into French by an authorised translator.

- Have the signature of that translator duly verified by some French public official.

I had to fulfill similar formalities to get my Dutch birth certificate accepted when I married my Swedish wife in 1962.

Roxy-

In Texas I believe you need to mail docs to be “apostillada” to:

http://txsos-7.sos.state.tx.us/authfaqs.shtml

Texas
Office of Secretary of State
P.O. Box 12079
Austin, TX 78711
512-463-5705
http://txsos-7.sos.state.tx.us/authfaqs.shtml
Fee: $15.00
Designated Authority: Secretary of State; Assistant Secretary of State

Roxy-
here are better details on State Authentication Authorities-Apostilles and Texas:

http://travel.state.gov/family/abduction/hague_issues/hague_issues_562.html

http://txsos-7.sos.state.tx.us/authfaqs.shtml
http://txsos-7.sos.state.tx.us/authinfo.shtml

Hi my name is Luis Massieu, I work with http://www.apostilla.com.

We are based in New York City.

If someone out there is in URGENT need of an apostille we can process the county clerk certification and the apostille with the Secretary of State in 24hrs (same day service)

for inquiries please call or email lmassieu@apostilla.com

Best,

Luis Massieu

My family is moving to Brussels, Belgium as soon as we can get our stuff together, but we have to have birth certificates for all 5 of us and our marriage certificate notarized and apostilled (is that a verb?). We have to go to 4 different states, none of them NY. God help us if we have an experience similar to yours. We’ll have the stuff back in 2 years, when we should be moving back to the States!

Seems like an awful lot to get done…from what I read on the NYC website what you need is a long form birth certificate from the City of New York (if you were born there)…now, they have the Department of State Certification Unit in NYC with the telephone being 212-417-5684. ..you go there, get the birth certificate certified for a $10 fee and then they send it to the State and from there you get the apostille. Of course, you must specify the country where you will be showing these documents to. It seems like less of a hassle if you ask me.

One more thing..on the vital link order form from the NY City Department of Health…they apparantly do send you a long form when you request it. When you first apply, there is a pop up link that has a list of reason for why you want your birth certificate….and one of them is “Long form.”

Ok…got even more info and its not as difficult as its made out to be. Now, this is for those born in NYC…myself, I was born in Manhattan. I need to get my LONG FORM birth certificate. Once that is obtained, you need to go to the County Clerk in Manhattan, located at 60 Centre (Center) Street, Romm 141B (”B” for basement), this is done in order to get the signature on the Birth Certificate authentisizes (sp), not sure how much this costs. BUT, its a very quick procedure done while you wait.

After that is done, you need to get the Apostille from the State of New York. You need to specify for what Country it is for…you can do this at 123 William Street on the 19th floor..this place is the Department of State Certification Unit and its open from 8:45-5 pm…now, what they tell you is that office hours go from 8:45-11:45 am and then from I believe 1pm to 4:45 pm…the cost is $10 and this too is done while you wait.

About the only real time you waste is the travel time since everything is located in that Wall Street area near the Brooklyn Bridge…the William Street address if you’re coming from uptown I believe you can take the #4 train or whatever train gets you to the Fulton Street Station.

Hope this helps.

Great posting, Steven!! Thanks.

(But still does not solve the problem for those of us living overseas!)

Hey Thomas…not a problem and you’re right, it doesn’t help when you’re over seas! My mistake! lol….but, you can always come back!

Thank you. What luck to have found your site. It was not as obvious how to proceed from the paperwork NYC sent back!!!!

I’m thrilled to have found this little blog.

I’m living in Spain and pulling together my documents to get married. I was in the process of ordering my long form birth certificate from NYC Vital Records online, but wasn’t sure I’d get an actual long form (vault) copy from the handy VitalCheck service. So I Googled “How can I be sure they are sending me a long form birth certificate?” and here I am.

I managed to piece together the three legs of the process through to the Dept. of State through a series of phone calls with brutal hold times. It’s comforting to see it all s p e l l e d o u t here, and with nice cover letter tips, too.

For my next trick, I’ll have to prove somehow that I am “free to marry”. No such document exists in the States. Wish me luck.

Thanks,

Sonja

Thomas, thanks for posting this. I have one question: do the long-form certificates come with a separate letter of exemplification? Or is it enough to have the notice (on the certificate) certifying that it’s a true copy with the signature of the registrar?

I called the Bureau and asked 3 times that they send me my long-form birth certificate with letter of exemplification, but they only sent one document. Am I ready to go to the county clerk?

Thanks,
Sherry

Hi Sherry!

For me, the birth certificate and letter of exemplification were separate documents.

Good luck with the process and please post any tips you discover about the process!!

Tom

HI, I AM ASLO GREATFUL TO FIND THIS WEBSITE!

It was a great help to us , other citizens to do this terrible process of dealing with all the burocratic systems!
I did it already for my daughters 3 times, but never had to do it from out of the country. It is challenging and I was told I have to do all the mailing within these 3 offices. (Even if I am not really there, right.) What a nightmare! Thank god we have friends, since I dont have any family members living in the USA.
First trouble I am running for is my PC (or the website http://www.vitalchek.com). It is kicking me out during or after my second daughter- I have 3, so I am putting 3 requests. And I was told this is the only way how to order Long Form BC for my kids. (Otherwise I would have to prooved - that I am I.) So , if I will be ever able to order the BC, they will have to be mailed to my home address, my friend would have to picked them up there and mail to the County Clerk office. If the story with the address is the same , she would would have to pick up this document after it comes back and send it to the Dept of State.
So , I will keep her pretty busy and have to really thank her for doing that.

By the way, at the beginning you said not to use this website vitalchek- that is giving me so much trouble. Is there another way how to order long form? I called Vital Record and they told me this is the only way without sending notarized letter with a copy of my ID to them. If I do it with vitalchek the Credit card is my proof.
My kids are starting school in Mexico and they need it for school and for the Immigration.

Thanks
Michelle

I have a client who moved to Israel with his mother from Florida about 10 years ago. They had CD’s at a bank in Florida. The son died and we want to move the accounts into his mother’s name. The mother is in Israel and is Ill, so she wants this done asap. Who do I contact in Israel to obtain an Apostille in english for the bank in Florida?
Thanks,
GLMCPA

If you can’t find anyone to do it for you, in NewYork you can send your Documents to New York Apostille where they will walk them through the Clerk’s office and the Dept of State for you and mail the FedEx so you get them within a week for $110 in USA or $130 overseas. You can check them out at http://www.newyork-apostilles.com/ . Or phone at 1-866-538-0591 . They have several offices nationwide and can process apostilles in all states.

For Israel Apostille check out this web site: http://www.apostilleinfo.com/israel.htm

Your information is very helpful so far and I am so grateful that you posted this information, or else I would really be lost. I am in the process of getting an apostille for my daughter’s certificate to submit a residence permit in the Caribbean.

Thank you so much

Dear All, I need a bit of help. I am a US citizen living in London and planning on marrying my Slovak fiance in Slovakia. I need my Birth Cert, with the Apostle. I am from PA, and I was curious what is the easiest way to obtain this document, and if I can obtain this document whilst abroad. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
Matt

Hey,
You might be interested in this article on apostilles from NuWire Investor.

Thanks so much for blogging about this. It should be clarified at vitalcheck when you order your birth certificate (esp. since they ask you “for what reason” you are ordering). I too am getting married in France, tho’ i am living here already. We just went to the Mairie today and I thought I had all my documents completed, and then came up against the “apostille dilemma.” I was going to go with the apostilla.com service to the tune of 200 bucks (!) but instead my brother in New York is doing it for me, to the tune of 13 bucks plus postage (and his time). The fact that the office of the County Clerk and the State Dept’ are both in Manhattan and within walking distance of eachother makes its much easier. I recommend to others that you ask a trusted friend (if you have one in NY) and save the money for something more important….like champagne!

Thomas!

Thank you so much for this website. I have followed your advice to the tee and on Friday I finally received my apostille!

BUT A QUESTION…what I have is the apostille, “exemplification of birth record” (with a small notary slip attached), and the long form birth certificate all stapled together. Do ALL of these need to be translated into French or simply the apostille and the birth certificate??? This would save me some cash if the exemplification doesn’t need to get translated (which it doesn’t seem like it needs to be, but who knows?) If ANYONE knows, please give a shout-out!

Hoping for a December wedding… Thank you!

Re: translation of “exemplification of birth record.” I had the same question. The person I saw at the Mairie in the 10th arrondissement last Friday said that I did NOT have to have this piece translated. Just the birth certificate itself, and the apostille (which i am still waiting to get). I have no idea if this is the “policy” or if I just happened to get a nice person that day. I would say go to the Mairie with what you have, and see what they say. Also FYI - I was able to book a date in December without having the apostille yet. As long as I get it in before the wedding date, I’m OK. So it’s worth going and trying to get the date booked and then if you still have loose ends you can take care of them in the next few weeks. Good luck!

My experience is that it really depends on the officials you get at the desk. Smile and make yourself friendly. I did not translate the letter of exemplification, but the translator did both the apostille and birth certificate for the same price. Once again: I found there are no strict policies on this. It can vary according to the official.

Does anyone know if its the same process to get a death and marriage cert with an apostille as well? i am trying to get my italian citizenship

Thanks a lot Thomas for this website.

Thanks everyone, I have done this process several times in PA and currently attempting the same in New York. If anyone out there ever need an apostille in PA please drop me a line b/c I live in the state capital your only expense will be document fees, my time pro bono.

Hi, Thomas

I had birth certificate, long form with exemplification letter. Had been certified by county clerk and apostille by department of state.
I received apostille with the name who sign in the exemplification letter.
Now my question is? How can I get apostille sign by city of registrar on the copy of bith certificate.
I have problem getting apostille sign by city of register fo birth certificate, if you can help me with this I will apreciate.
For El Salvador residence.

Sicerelly,
yenny

Melissa,

I’ve just started the process of getting my Italian citizenship as well.

On the phone with Vital Records they told me to go to 1 Center St to get a marriage cert., which is right in area that Steven said you need to go to get all the certifications and apostilles.

So it shouldn’t be too hard to find out since you’ll be in the general area anyway.

And thanks alot for this site Thomas, and everyone that has posted. Good luck to everyone.

thank u for all this info!very helpful! so sonja you have mentioned that you will have to prove somehow that you am “free to marry”. I have run into that problem also. USA does not give u a document like that. how the heck do you get it??? thank you Helen

Hi Thomas,

Do you know if you can go to the Manhattan County Clerk Notary Office and New York Department of State with a PA Birth Certificate? I live here, but was born in PA - would you know if I have to track down the respective PA offices instead?

I never knew getting married in Germany could be such a hassle. And it’s just the beginning!

I’m applying for dual citizenship. My mother was born in Italy, and I was born in the US.

Here is what I think I need to do to apply, but I’m confused and am hoping you can help if you’ve been through this before. I hope…

http://www.myitalianfamily.com/record/requirements.html:

1) FATHER’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE (or a”certified copy” or a “long form” or a “full form”; (not “certification” or “abstract”) with an APOSTILLE from the Secretary of NY State.

2) MOTHER’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE (the birth certificate must be either in “formato internazionale”, or in “estratto per riassunto” showing father and mother’s names).

3) PARENTS’ MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE (we must obtain a “certified copy” of the license with an original signature of the City Clerk from the Marriage Bureau, Municipal Center, 1 Centre Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10007. In addition, we must obtain a certificate of an APOSTILLE from the Secretary of NY State. The document can then be presented to the New York State Department of State for authentication.

4) MOTHER’S ITALIAN PASSPORT AND PERMANENT RESIDENT CARD (”green card”) or CERTIFICATE OF NATURALIZATION.

5) MY BIRTH CERTIFICATE (you must obtain a “certified copy” a.k.a. “full form” or “long form” (not abstract), with an APOSTILLE from the Secretary of NY State.

Step 1) We need to call and specifically request a “long form” (or “vault copy”) of the birth certificate with letter of exemplification. The cost is about $35 dollars and it takes about five days from the time they receive your request.

Address:
Bureau of Vital Records
125 Worth Street NY, NY 10013
Tel: 212-788-4500

Step 2) Send $3 with the long form birth certificate and letter of exemplification to be certified by the Manhattan County Clerk Notary Department. Include a note asking for certification in order to get an apostille:

Dear Sir or Madam,
I am in the process of getting an apostille on my birth certificate so that I may obtain Italian dual citizenship.
Enclosed please find:
1- My long form birth certificate

2- A check for $3 to get the document notarized.
Please return this at your soonest convenience to me at the below address
Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to email me or call.
In advance, thank you for your assistance in helping me get married!
Sincerely,
Catherine Fugarino

The fees must be paid in cash, by Visa or Mastercard, by an attorney’s check made payable to the New York County Clerk, or in the form of a U.S. postal money order made payable to the New York County Clerk. (We sent cash and it worked.)

Address:
NY County Clerk, Attention Notary Department
60 Center Street, NY, NY 10007
Tel: 646-386-5955

Step 3) Send documents from Steps 1 and 2 to the NY Department of State with a $10 check payable to the “New York State Department of State” with a letter asking for an apostille:

Dear Sir or Madam,
I am in the process of getting an apostille on my birth certificate so that I may obtain Italian dual citizenship.
Enclosed please find:
1- My long form birth certificate and notarization from the county clerk in Manhattan.
2- A check for $10 to get the Apostille for my birth certificate.
Please return this at your soonest convenience to me at the below address
Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to email me or call.
In advance, thank you for your assistance in helping me obtain Italian dual citizenship!
Sincerely,
Catherine Fugarino

Address:
New York Department of State
Miscellaneous Records Unit
41 State Street
Albany NY, 12231
Telephone: (518) 474-8642

6) APPLICATION AND DECLARATION THAT YOU AND YOUR ASCENDANT NEVER RENOUNCED ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP BEFORE ANY ITALIAN AUTHORITY, LISTING ALL THE PLACES OF RESIDENCE (see attachments (PDF): 2A - 2B)

COPY OF MY PASSPORT AND DRIVER’S LICENSE

CONSOLATO GENERALE D’ITALIA NEW YORK
690 PARK AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10021-5044
ph.(212)737-9100 fax(212)249 4945
Email: dual_citt.newyork@itwash.org

I sent $3 cash to NY County Clerk, original long birth certificate and letter of exemplification. I also included note why I need it to be notarized. The only thing I forgot is paid envelope with my address on it. Would they send it back or they will keep my documents till I pay them ?

Hello:

Can anyone confirm that you can order the Birth Certificate online for New York City, chose “long form” and that they will send the letter of exemplification.

Or must I send the application ni the mail with a writen request for the letter of exemplification?

Thanks,

gary

Hello Thomas

I am working abroad in Spain and am trying to get my College Transcripts convalidated.
I was told that I will need the Apostille de le Haya. Is this the same Apostille that you needed in France?
Do you or does anyone here have any information aboot acquiring this apostille for other documetns besides birth certificates. Both of my transcripts are from New York Universities (Fordham and Pace)

If I understand correctly every document must first be mailed to the county clerk and than to the New York Department of State, no? The state department says the documents issued “downstate” like my transcripts should be mailed to

New York Department of State, Certification Unit is
6th Floor, 270 Broadway, New York, New York 10007, tel: 212-417-5684.

Can anyone confirm this information for me?
Is this correct or does it need to go to Albany?

Thank you in advance,
Sierra

Hey guys,
This IS the most helpful site I have found on the issue of Apostille. Especially Steve’s posting of August last year about how to do it if you still are in NYC. What I did not quite get is whether he still needed the Letter of Exemplification or not? Does anyone know this? How long does it take to get it. My daughter was born on December 28th, 2007 and a wrong birth certificate arrived in the mail 2 weeks later. the correction is still going on, but I have no means of making the Dept. of Vital Records to send this letter with the corrected certificate. They begave like idiots on the phone and when I went to 125 Worth street, room 144, they did not know anything about the apostille procedure.

Hi Thomas,

Many thanks for this site. I have been going around in circles trying to understand the way to get an Apostille on a notarized copy of my passport to send to the Israeli courts for a family issue.

Beverly

Hi… I am glad i found this side.

Please any one very simple explane to me what first, second and third step i have to go through…. to get Copy of Birth Certificate with Apostille.
Right now i have a Application for a Birth record…done, i downlowd from webside. What next….?
I know some addresses:
1,2,3..? 125 Worth Street, rm.133 NY- NYC Department of Health
1,2,3..? 123 William Street 19 floor NY - NYC Department of State.
1,2,3..60 Center Street , rm.141 B, NY - NY County Clerk.
Thank you a lot…..Alla

Apparently, for us expats teaching English overseas in Korea, we are now required to have a criminal background check (which is great). However, the hoops that we must jump through especially being overseas is horrific. What I am seeing is that, not only do I need the documents notorized, but also certified by a postil. I’m a resident of California, so I guess i’ll start going through the red tape to get it figured out. Anyone with CA experience, feel free to share. Thanks

Hi Thomas!

Thanks for being so helpful! Do you know how to prove marriage and death certificates for NY? Would it be the same process? Thanks so much!
Holly

Hi, I recently got married in Cancun and I found out that I needed to Apostille my Birth Certificate from New York City. And I don’t agree with caroline, for me (a full time lawyer) was more than worth it to pay apostilla.com just $200 for a same day turn-around and a fedex to cancun to my wedding coordinator. Thanks to their services I didn’t have to postpone my wedding plans.

I’ve devoted an e-guide to helping people get U.S. apostilles *without* paying a ton of money to an apostille service. There are a few “insider” tricks to doing it fast and some important info you need to know exactly what to do.

It covers all 50 U.S. states, including instructions for Federal apostilles. Good luck!

-Melanie Viego

http://www.apostilleguide.com

In response to those who need a certification from the U.S. that you are eligible to be married, the trick is to go U.S. Citizens’ Services in the U.S. consulate in the country where you live, and make a sworn statement that you are single or divorced. The consulate will then issue a notarized document that is usually accepted in the country where you want to get married. I’ve done this twice, and it works, at least in Costa Rica.

Amos B,

Sorry to hear the first marriage didn’t work out.

I tried that, but the French government bureaucrats ONLY wanted the one obtained from the NY authorities.

Tom

This is an excellent Apostille/Authentication Service. They will take care of everything for you and with affordable fees. Check it out! Excellent Service!

http://www.apostillehelpdesk.com
Excellent service and affordable fees!

Tom, thanks for the guidance. It really helped me out. I have one question. Besides the fees applicable in each of the steps, did you have to provide them with prepaid postage envelopes? I live outside the states and I can imagine that if mailed internationally, they would expect some extra amounts for shipping purposes.

I obtain these every day by walking the documents thru the system personally. I usually can provide & ship the apostille next day after receiving it. One additional day if the lines for processing are very long.
Kenneth A Edelstein