If your official certified or notarized documents from California are going to be used outside of the United States, they will frequently need an Apostille or Certification. The Secretary of State of California issues Apostilles and Certifications for documents on which they authenticate the signatures of certain public officials, including County Clerks. Such documents include Birth Certificates, Death Certificates, and Marriage Certificates. Other documents that the Secretary of State issues Apostilles or Certifications for include: Court Orders from the California Superior Court and documents signed by certain State of California public officials.

Why Your Birth Certificate or Death Certificate Might Need County Clerk Authentication First

Often when people obtain Birth Certificates from a hospital soon after a child is born, that Certificate is issued from a City or County's Department of Health. This is also the case for when someone dies and a Death Certificate is obtained from a funeral home- the certificate is issued from the local Department of Health and is not signed by the County Clerk. That certificate is signed by a local Health Officer or Registrar typically. However, it is not signed by the County Clerk, and a signature is required by a County Clerk, County Registrar or County Recorder in order to get an Apostille on it. In order for a document like this to get an Apostille, you must take it to the County Clerk/Recorder's office and get an authentication or exemplification of the signature of the Health Officer or local Registrar.

It can take 2 to 6 months for a California County Clerk's office to have the Birth or Death Records available to issue from their office (as opposed to the County's Public Health Department).

The State of California's Secretary of State's office in Sacramento takes up to 2 weeks to process mailed orders for Apostilles and Certifications on documents which require signature Authentications, including documents signed by County Clerks and Notaries Public in California.

If you need to get an Apostille faster than the 2 weeks that it takes the California Secretary of State's office in Sacramento, Hollywood Notary.Net offers Apostille Services that will get your documents Apostilled and delivered back to you faster, and on a time-definite basis. We process your order by personally delivering your documents to the Secretary of State's office in Los Angeles, where we wait for processing and immediately send the documents back to you.

We can get an Apostille on any document in California that has been signed and properly notarized by any California Notary Public, and signed and/or authenticated by any County Clerk in California, for any of the 58 California Counties. Our service takes 1 business day from the day of receipt. Your signature or authentication by the County Clerk must have been obtained within the last 5 years in order to be accepted by the Secretary of State. Your notarized document must have the signature of a current California Notary Public whose commission is not expired.