From Your Documents to Officially Authenticated
Our process is built to eliminate the rejections and delays that derail enrollment, visa, and licensing deadlines. Here is exactly how your academic records move from your hands to fully authenticated and back to you.
1. Document Review & Eligibility Check
We confirm your institution type (public or private), the document type, the issuing state, and your destination country’s exact requirements — the step where most providers go wrong and where we prevent rejections.
2. Choose How We Receive Your Records
There are three ways to get your academic records to us, and they determine whether a notary fee applies:
- Upload digital copies — you upload scans through our secure portal and we print and notarize them for you. A $25 notary fee per document applies.
- Mail in, we notarize — you mail your records and we notarize them before apostille. A $25 notary fee per document applies.
- Mail in already notarized — your records are already notarized, either by the issuing university/institution or by a notary you used. No notary fee.
3. Notarization (When Required)
Private-institution documents must be notarized before apostille; public-institution documents usually go straight to the Secretary of State. When we notarize for you, it is performed by a commissioned notary public.
4. Apostille / Authentication — Including Out of State
We are based in California, and by default we process apostilles through the California Secretary of State. If you mail in records that are already notarized in another state, we apostille them in that state — and your pricing stays exactly the same. We coordinate apostille processing across all 50 states.
5. Translation & Embassy Legalization (If Needed)
For non-Hague destinations we complete the full embassy or consulate legalization chain, and we add a certified translation whenever the destination requires one.
6. Secure Return Delivery
Your authenticated documents are returned by tracked, certified shipping before your deadline, or you can arrange in-person pickup. Domestic return shipping is $25 and international is $140; non-Hague orders include additional routing to our Washington, D.C. processing point for federal authentication and on to the embassy.
Mailing your records to us
Mail original documents to our office: 17875 Von Karman Ave., Suite 150, Irvine, CA 92614. Please use a trackable service and include your reference number.
Why a California apostille is valid for out-of-state academic records we notarize
When we notarize your document, the apostille authenticates the notary’s commission and signature — not the issuing school. Under Article 3 of the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention and applicable state notarial law, an apostille issued by the state in which the notarial act is performed is valid for international use regardless of which state issued the underlying academic record. Accordingly, when we notarize your uploaded or mailed-in record in California, the California Secretary of State apostille lawfully authenticates the document for use abroad. If you instead provide a record that is already notarized in another state, the apostille must be issued by that state to match the notarization — so we route it accordingly, and a $25 out-of-state mailing surcharge applies. Pricing for the apostille itself stays the same regardless of state.
Ready to begin? You can submit your documents online or talk to a specialist first.