@idabroper300zx save your money. Go to the Florida SoS website and read the directions there … It’s a very simple procedure to help your clients/signers obtain an apostille.
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Linda, the process is simple if you know what document types go to what Government Organization. You can only get that information from a structured training class or by submitting your documents to the wrong organization or in the wrong order and then you have a client who has gone sideways on you.
So yes it’s quite simple after you’ve done the preparation (training).
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Hey Joe, which training do you think is the best for Apostille?
Thanks
Firstly Wil is full of it. If you require structured training you probably shouldn’t be doing it. Fun fact, 40 million people live in my state and our Secretary of State issued less than 250 thousand apostilles. Most of them were obtained through the USMail by people following simple online instructions from the Secretary of State.
The only reason someone would call your new expensive apostille website is that they need it done a hurry. If you don’t live near enough to drive to your Secretary of State’s office you have to arrange a long-distance relay race and each runner has to be paid by you. So are you a team builder? You need a team of people you TRUST because if anyone drops the baton you eat all those out-of-pocket expenses and probably get a nasty online review.
Your biggest fear is shipping a document that was not notarized by you. 1/3 of all notaries have changed their signature since they started their commission, or misspelled the signer’s name, or used the wrong certificate. These documents are instantly rejected and it’s always your responsibility.
Well maybe you’re not that wrong about the training part Wil but no formal training and excellent advertising will make you more money doing this than excellent training and no marketing.
When someone needs an apostille they google it, they don’t call a notary public. Remember that. Our Secretary of State even has a list of providers, I’m on that list because my name has been on thousands of checks they’ve cashed over the years.
You would be much better off by participating in my local paid referral program.
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My comment was addressed to idabroper300zx who, by his post, is located in Florida. Florida is very simple…the state SoS handles everything. Fill out a form, submit the original document with a check for appropriate fees and they handle it. He needs no formal training…anyone in Florida can follow those directions and if they can’t, they shouldn’t be touching ANY documents at all. They have other things to worry about learning first.
He is in NW Florida, which is the same general area as our capital. Not sure how close he is but he may be able to walk the documents over to the SoS office himself, but I’m not sure they do it on the spot - think the docs have to be left. If he’s not close, he just needs to mail the docs to the SoS with a postage paid return envelope (I used USPS Priority Mail) - postage out and postage back was paid by the requestor at time of initial appointment, in advance.
I don’t know what your “class” entails, but there are just some things for which “classes” are not needed if one knows how to read and follow directions.
JMO
P.S. - I went and checked out Judi Lawrence course - $400-$600??? To learn THIS??? That, IMO, is just plain highway robbery and I feel sorry for anyone who has fallen for this. Oh, and BTW, of another note on that site? She’s partnered up with…wait for it…Jennifer Garland!
I wouldn’t pay her one red cent.
Again, JMO
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now that’s the tee/tea 
You don’t have to listen to me. Just visit my Google My Business page to read the reviews of my course. My business name is Exceptional Notary and you can scroll through my reviews to see the many satisfied customers that have taken my course. The biggest feedback I get from my course is the NO-NO’s document that is provided in the course. This is the stuff that most people should NOT do as an Apostille Consultant. Most of my students say I didn’t know that. By the way, I don’t charge several hundred dollars for my course, so you will make your money back after doing your first Apostille.
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Before you can determine whether you need to send your document to the SOS office you need to discern whether the document is prepared properly before you send it to the SOS. If it’s a birth, death, marriage or divorce certificate does it have the correct signatures at the bottom of the document? Is the document a Federal or State document? Is the document going to a country that has NOT signed the Hague Convention. If they have signed the Hague Convention what is their EIF date? What do you do with a US Citizenship Certificate? Who is the responsible agency that is allowed to certify a US Citizenship Certificate? If you do a Certification by Document Custodian of a Passport do you need to also get that document Legalized by the US State Department?
There are many more things that I cover in my class, but what you’re describing is the tip of the iceberg.
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Wil, I am so greatful that I took your course. I walked away with so many useful knowledge, business resources, marketing tools, and thorough understanding of the HCCH signatory tables and intricacies of dealing with Chinese territories. Ive read the comments about those of us who VALUE training and mentorship from someone who’s been in the business for a while and have gained experience with the harder requests. I now know the name of my state’s Registrar for vital records, how long a notarization is good for, and what government documents can bypass the U.S. DoS when certified properly.
We really ought to be careful with your dialogs. Not everyone wings it, and not all State Department websites go into the level of detail you need to know. If you figured it out on your own by trial and error, then good for you. But for others who prefer structured learning, then you should not discourage them.
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Patricia, I appreciate the feedback from you regarding my Apostille course. With anything in life, there are the known unknowns and unknown unknowns. I don’t profess to know everything about the Apostille process, but my course will lessen the knowledge gap between what you should know about the Apostille process vs.what you don’t know.
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Hello Everyone, I am an apostille facilitator (OKA agent) and courier for all 50 US. I’m located in Northern CA. Just wanted to add my 2 cents here.
Apostille is a French word that means certification. It is commonly used to refer to the legalization of a document for international use under the terms of the 1961 Hague Convention, abolishing the requirement of legalization for foreign documents (www.hcch.net).
These documents are for a variety of reasons (to claim an inheritance, proof of single status, renewing a foreign passport, opening an office in another country, adoption, etc.), of which are INCREDIBLY important to the individual, attorney, corporation, etc. needing it, who is usually on a time schedule to get it accomplished.
The apostille does not certify the contents of a particular document as being true or valid, but it certifies that the signature(s) of the public official on the document is a valid signature, such as the county clerk who signed a birth certificate, the judge who signed a marriage certificate, or the notary who issued a notarial certificate.
For the most part, obtaining a basic apostille from the Secretary of State’s office (SOS) is a very easy process. Lots of people who need one will go on the SOS website to find out what the fee and process is, find a notary to notarize their document and head up to the SOS to get it apostilled. Easy Peazy
However, in the document legalization process (in which one step - and sometimes the only step needed - in the process is obtaining an apostille), depending on if the country of destination (COD) is a Hague member country (or Hague contracting party) or non-Hague member country, there will be additional steps needed for the client, such as whether or not the document is from another state, if it’s a federal document, etc., in which case the document may need to go to the US Dept. of State and the Embassy/Consulate. This all depends on the specific COD and their requirements.
If you are interested in learning more about the process or becoming a Facilitator (oka Agent) to offer clients quality customer service, then training is VITAL so that you understand the process, what each country requires, how to handle certain types of documents, etc.
The key is to become educated in the industry because when clients come to you, they don’t always know the steps to take or what’s required. Also, so that you don’t make mistakes that will cause the clients documents to get rejected in the receiving country, which would require them to start the entire process all over again, costing them more money, and could take months that they don’t have, as in the case of an adoption, buying real estate, etc. (the current turnaround time for the US Dept. of State to process documents is 10-15 weeks!).
The SOS states that the main reason documents are rejected is due to notary error (issuing the wrong certificate, issuing a notarial certificate for a Federal document, notarizing a vital record, etc.). I am at the SOS apostille dept. on a daily basis and I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been asked to correct a notary’s mistake while I’m there. Also, there are a lot of people who arrive at the SOS to get an apostille only to learn that their document needs to be authenticated from some other source, which cannot be done by a notary.
I’ve taken two separate courses by two different instructors. One has been providing the service for more than 17 years; the other instructor first introduced it in 2018 and at that time said that they were about a year into it. One is by far the most comprehensive and expounds on providing the service for corporations (in addition to individuals) more so than the other instructor’s course. The comprehensive course is $298 and comes with a database that keeps track of your apostilles and tells you what is needed for each country, and the other one is $499 for a pre-recorded webinar (I waited for a sale and only paid $285 for this one).
I hope this helps.
Lisa
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