Where to Apostille a Death Certificate in Boca Raton

There is no office in Boca Raton that issues apostilles. Every apostille on a Florida death certificate is issued by the Florida Secretary of State in Tallahassee, and that is true whether you live in Boca Raton, Miami, or Pensacola. What you can do in Boca Raton is get the certificate into the right hands. Our office is here. We review the death certificate, hand-deliver it to the Secretary of State, and return it with the apostille 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.

The rest of this page covers which copy of the death certificate the state will accept, the version with cause of death, what gets rejected, and what to do if the death was recorded in another state.

The copy the state will accept

The Secretary of State apostilles a certified copy of the death certificate that carries the signature of the Florida State Registrar. That copy comes from the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics, ordered online through VitalChek or by mail, or from a county health department office in person. Before issuing the apostille, the state checks that the registrar's signature on your copy was valid when the copy was issued.

A death certificate is a state record, so nothing on it is notarized. If someone tells you to have it notarized first, they are wrong, and a Florida notary cannot notarize it anyway.

If you are not sure whether the copy you have is the right one, upload a scan through the uploader on the order form before you mail anything. We look at it and tell you.

With or without cause of death

Florida issues two versions of a death certificate. One shows the cause of death and one does not. The version with cause of death is confidential under Florida law, and the Bureau of Vital Statistics releases it only to eligible applicants, generally the immediate family or a legal representative, with identification. Anyone else needs a notarized release signed by an eligible person.

If the agency abroad has told you it needs the cause of death, order that version and be prepared to show you are eligible. If it has not asked, the version without cause of death is simpler to obtain. Either version can be apostilled once it carries the State Registrar's signature. Tell us which one you are sending so the review matches what your destination expects.

What Gets a Death Certificate Apostille Rejected

A copy without the State Registrar's signature. The funeral home's copy, a photocopy, a scan printed at home, or an informational copy will not be apostilled. Look for the State Registrar's signature and the state seal.

An older copy. Certified copies issued years ago are the ones most often sent back for a fresh copy. If the copy you have is more than a few years old, order a new one before you place your apostille order. It costs less than a rejected submission and saves the round trip.

The wrong state. A death certificate is apostilled by the state that issued it. If the death was recorded in Ohio, the Ohio Department of Health's copy goes to Ohio's Secretary of State, not Tallahassee. We handle out-of-state death certificates as well; the base price is the same, some states add their own processing charges, and we confirm those before you pay. Put the issuing state on your order and we give you that state's timeline.

All three are caught on our review before anything travels, which is the point of the review.

What the apostille is used for

Our death certificate orders have gone to Romania, Chile, the Philippines, Turkey, Ecuador, Israel, Costa Rica, France, and Croatia. The reasons are the ones you would expect: settling an estate or inheritance abroad, claiming a spouse's foreign pension or insurance, transferring property held in another country, closing foreign accounts, and remarrying abroad. The apostille is the same document in every case. If the receiving agency wants the certificate in its own language, we provide certified translation, and it can be done while the apostille is in process.

Death certificates often travel with other documents: a marriage certificate or a birth certificate to prove the relationship, a will or a power of attorney for the estate. Each document gets its own apostille and is priced at $125 after the first. A marriage certificate is apostilled on the Clerk of Court's certified copy; a will or power of attorney is a private document and needs notarization first, which we do ourselves. Tell us the full set on the order and we sort each one to the right process.

How the order works from Boca Raton

You place the order online and receive a confirmation email. Upload a scan of the certificate through the secure uploader, or reply to the confirmation email with it, and we review it. Then get us the original: drop it off at our Boca Raton office, mail it, or choose on-site service and we pick it up at your home or office anywhere in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Deerfield Beach, or the rest of Palm Beach and Broward counties. When the original arrives and passes review, we submit it, and the 2, 3-to-5, or 6-to-8 business days count from that day. Your certificate is hand-delivered to the Secretary of State in Tallahassee, not mailed, which is why a 2-day turnaround is possible. Mailing it to Tallahassee yourself can take 30 days or more.

Shipping inside the United States is included, both directions. Outside the United States, you arrange shipping to us and we send you a credit card authorization form for the return. Our post on how long a Florida apostille takes covers the timing in detail.

Express, Regular Express, or Standard

Choose 2-Day Express when a court date, a filing deadline, or a travel date is on the calendar. Submit the completed certificate before 12pm EST on a business day. Express applies to Florida-issued documents going to Hague Convention countries and adds $255. Regular Express, 3 to 5 business days, is the most common choice. Standard, 6 to 8 business days, is for orders with no fixed date. All three count business days, and the times are estimates based on how the Secretary of State's office is running.

If the destination country is not a member of the Hague Convention, the certificate needs an authentication rather than an apostille, a longer process that can include the embassy. We assess those orders individually and give you a timeline before you pay.

Ready to order

A Florida death certificate apostille is $275 for the first document and $125 for each additional one. Order online or call 800-208-2128, Monday through Friday, 9am to 6pm EST. If you are not sure the copy you have is the right one, upload it first and we will tell you.