Where to Apostille Corporate Records in Florida

Florida corporate records are apostilled by the Florida Secretary of State in Tallahassee, and nowhere else. No county office, registered agent, or bank can issue one. The part that trips up most companies is that "corporate records" are three different kinds of document, and each one has to be in a different condition before Tallahassee will accept it. Certificates from the Division of Corporations are apostilled exactly as issued. Internal company documents have to be signed by an officer and notarized by a Florida notary first. Documents issued by the IRS are federal and do not go to Tallahassee at all. We sort the package, handle the notarizations, hand-deliver the state documents to the Secretary of State, and return everything to you in 2 business days with Express, 3 to 5 with Regular Express, or 6 to 8 with Standard. The price is $275 for the first document and $125 for each additional one. Order online or call 800-208-2128.

What a foreign registry, bank, or partner usually asks for

The requests we see come from companies opening a subsidiary or branch abroad, registering with a foreign tax authority, opening a corporate bank account overseas, buying property through the company, appointing a representative in another country, or signing a contract that the other side's lawyers want backed by apostilled proof of who the company is and who can sign for it. The package is usually some combination of a certificate of status, certified articles of incorporation or organization, a power of attorney naming the person acting abroad, and a certificate of incumbency listing the officers. Annual reports, director's certificates, board resolutions, and an EIN letter turn up often as well. Our corporate orders have gone to Costa Rica, Spain, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Ecuador, Italy, Germany, Romania, and Mauritius, many of them placed by law firms and registered-agent offices on behalf of the company.

How to apostille corporate records issued by the State of Florida

Documents issued by the Florida Division of Corporations are apostilled on the Division's own certification. That covers the certificate of status (what other states call a certificate of good standing), certified copies of the articles of incorporation or articles of organization, and certified copies of annual reports or amendments. The Secretary of State requires the original certificate or certified copy as issued by the Division; a photocopy, a scan, or a printout from the Sunbiz website is not accepted. Nothing in this group is notarized, and a Florida notary is not permitted to attest to a copy of a state record.

You can order these from the Division of Corporations online through Sunbiz, or we can order them for you as part of the job. Tell us the company name and document number on the order form. If a certificate of status is more than a few months old, order a fresh one; foreign registries often want a recent date.

Internal company documents: notarization first

Anything the company writes itself is a private document, and the apostille is issued on the notary's signature rather than on the company's. Powers of attorney, certificates of incumbency, board or member resolutions, bylaws, operating agreements, director's certificates, officer's certificates, letters of authorization, commercial invoices and business letters, and bank letters for the company all fall here.

The document is signed by an authorized officer in front of a Florida notary, with a complete notarial certificate in English, and the apostille certifies that notarization. This is where corporate packages get rejected: a certificate of incumbency with no notarial wording, a resolution notarized on a copy instead of the signed original, a signer whose name on the certificate does not match the ID, a stamp with no venue or date. A rejection sends the whole package back, and the foreign filing deadline does not move. We notarize these documents ourselves, in person or by video, so the notarization meets the Secretary of State's standard before anything travels.

A certificate of incumbency is not the same as a certificate of status. The first is an internal document signed by the corporate secretary and notarized; the second is issued by the state. Foreign banks frequently ask for both, and they go through the two different routes above.

IRS and other federal documents

A document issued by the IRS itself, such as an EIN confirmation letter, an IRS transcript, or a residency certificate (Form 6166), is a federal document. The State of Florida cannot apostille it. It goes through the U.S. Department of State, the same route as an FBI background check: $275 per document, 4 to 6 weeks standard, or about 10 to 12 business days expedited for an additional $150, and not eligible for 2-Day Express. If your package has both Sunbiz certificates and an EIN letter, the state documents come back in days and the federal one on its own timeline, and we tell you both before you pay.

Companies registered outside Florida

A Delaware corporation with a Florida office is still a Delaware corporation. Its certificate of good standing and certified articles are apostilled by Delaware, and a document notarized in another state is apostilled by that state. We handle these as well; the base price is the same, and additional charges may apply depending on the state. Documents notarized in Florida are apostilled in Florida regardless of where the company is registered, so a Florida-notarized power of attorney for a Delaware company goes to Tallahassee.

Translation, and countries outside the Hague Convention

If the foreign registry or bank wants the documents in its own language, we provide certified translation, and it can be prepared while the apostilles are in process. If the destination country is not a member of the Hague Convention, the documents need an authentication rather than an apostille, a longer chain that can include the U.S. Department of State and the country's embassy; we assess those orders individually and give you a timeline before you pay. Our post on what documents can be apostilled covers the rest of the document types.

How a corporate order works

Place the order online, listing every document in the package, and upload scans through the secure uploader. We review the set and sort it: which documents go to Tallahassee as issued, which need to be notarized first, and which are federal. Then the originals come to us: mail, drop-off at our Boca Raton office, or on-site service, where we come to the company and notarize the officer's signatures in the same visit. When the originals are in hand and pass review, we submit them, and the business days count from that day. State documents are hand-delivered to the Secretary of State in Tallahassee, not mailed. Shipping inside the United States is included both ways; international return shipping is billed by destination. 2-Day Express is available for Florida documents going to Hague Convention countries, submitted before 12pm EST, and adds $255.

Ready to order

$275 for the first document, $125 for each additional one, notarization from $100 per document when a document needs it. Order online or call 800-208-2128, Monday through Friday, 9am to 6pm EST. Law firms and registered agents placing orders for a client company can list the company on the order form and have the completed package returned to their office.