I just want to share my recent experience with doing Apostilles in California. I have been a Notary for 3 years and I can say without a doubt that this can be a very lucrative business as your service fees are paid in advance and those fees can be whatever your market will bear.
I average five Apostilles a week, some of which are multiple documents for the same client and each package is a minimum of 200.00 paid in advance. I travel up to Sacramento twice a week and the turnaround time when using the Drop Box has been averaging 3 days. Even if you can’t travel to your SOS you can still profitably run this business using a Courier service.
I would recommend that you get some training before doing your first Apostille or get yourself a Mentor to help you with your first few Apostilles.
Apostille work is NOT available in all States. I just checked with the North Dakota Secretary of States office and Notaries are not allowed to do Apostille work here… it has to be done at the SOS’s office.
Check with your State before you send $300.00 or more to any Apostille training company.
@bob4realty I’m going to disagree with you here - because I don’t believe you understand the concept of the role of “apostille services” - anyone can offer these services and they don’t even have to be a notary
What the person is doing is, essentially, helping the people needing the apostille to get it processed - they’re acting, basically as a middleman/courier to send/deliver the documents to the SOS and receive them back for delivery to the document owner.
No, a notary cannot DO an apostille, but they can help facilitate the process for people needing them.
Thank you for the clarification LindaH-FL. That makes sense as you explained it and does not discount what the SOS office told me. Then I have to wonder why anyone would pay $200. to do what the SOS does for free?
Bob, usually the SOS doesn’t do the paperwork and gather all the required supporting documents, etc. They Validate what you’ve sent and pull out their BIG GOLD perrrty stamp and send it back to the originator. You are charging to fill out the required form and ensure required information is attached to the SOS’s request form. You run down there or hire a currier to drop it off (or wait), and have it sent back to you. If there’s an error on the apostille request form, you get it right back (in your self-addressed stamped envelope). Makes sense? YOU are collecting the client’s money up front for all your labor, sub-contractor costs, SOS fee, and postage.
I’m a “down the rabbit hole” kind of researcher and by the time I pull up, I’ve worn myself out, never to get to the rest of it! Lol! So, yes I’d pay $300 it if nothing else but to stay focused.
I live in Indiana and have provided Apostille Services for about 5 months now. I literally watched some YouTube videos on the overall process. It is NOT difficult. And as has been mentioned, many will pay a high fee for this service to be done for them for their own reasons. Perhaps they don’t know how, they don’t want to deal with it, or they simply don’t trust themselves.