How to Apostille a Marriage Certificate in Florida

To apostille a Florida marriage certificate, you need a certified copy issued by the Clerk of Court in the county where your marriage license was issued. The Florida Secretary of State in Tallahassee places the apostille on that certified copy. Nothing is notarized, because a marriage certificate is a court record. With us the whole thing takes 2 business days with Express, 3 to 5 with Regular Express, or 6 to 8 with Standard, and the price is $275 for the first document and $125 for each additional one. You can order online or call 800-208-2128.

That is the short version. The rest of this page covers which copy of the certificate works, the three mistakes that get marriage certificates rejected, what to do if you were married in another state, and how the order runs from start to apostille.

Apostille Marriage Certificate Florida: Which Copy the State Accepts

When you got married in Florida, the officiant returned your signed license to the Clerk of Court, and the clerk recorded it. From that point the clerk is the only source of a copy the Secretary of State will accept. A certified copy from the clerk carries the clerk's certification and seal, and the apostille is issued on that certification.

You can get a certified copy two ways. Go to the Clerk of Court in the county where the license was issued, or order it online through VitalChek and have it mailed to you. If you are ordering it for an apostille, order it now rather than later, because the certificate has to be in our hands before the clock on your turnaround starts.

If you are not sure which document you have, send us a scan through the uploader on the order form before you send anything physical. We review it and tell you whether it will be accepted.

The three things that get marriage certificates rejected

We see the same three problems over and over, and all three are caught on our review before anything goes to Tallahassee.

The keepsake certificate. Many couples leave the ceremony with a decorative certificate signed by the officiant, sometimes on heavy paper with a ribbon or a church seal. It is a nice thing to have. It is not a legal record, and the Secretary of State will not apostille it. The document that counts is the certified copy from the clerk.

A copy that is not certified. A photocopy, a scan you printed at home, or a plain copy without the clerk's certification and seal will be rejected. Some clients send us the copy they were handed years ago, and it turns out to be an uncertified print. If you cannot see a clerk's certification on the document, assume it needs to be reordered.

An older certificate. Certified copies issued years ago often come back for a fresh copy, either because the certification format has changed since it was issued or because the receiving country asks for a recently issued record. If your certified copy 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 it saves you the round trip.

Notarization is not on this list, and it never will be. A Florida notary cannot notarize a court record, so if anyone tells you to have your marriage certificate notarized before the apostille, they are wrong.

Married in another state

The apostille comes from the state that issued the record, not the state you live in now. A New York marriage certificate is apostilled by New York, a New Jersey certificate by New Jersey. We handle these as well. The base price is the same $275 for the first document and $125 for each additional one; some states add their own processing charges, which we confirm with you before you pay. New Jersey, for example, comes to $325 for the first document. Put the issuing state on your order and we will tell you the timeline for that state.

What the apostille is for

The reasons vary. Registering a Florida marriage in a spouse's home country. A spousal visa or residency application. Buying property abroad as a married couple. Adding a spouse to a foreign pension, health plan, or inheritance. Dual citizenship applications that ask for the marriage record of the applicant's parents. The apostille itself is the same in every case; it certifies that the clerk's certification is authentic so the receiving country will accept the document. If the receiving country wants the certificate in its own language, we provide certified translation, and the translation can be prepared while the apostille is in process.

If you are getting married abroad rather than registering a marriage that already happened, the documents you need are different; see our post on getting married abroad.

How the order works

You place the order online and receive a confirmation email. You upload a scan or photo of the certified copy through the secure uploader on the order form, or reply to the confirmation email with it. We review it. Then the physical certificate comes to us by the method you chose on your order: mail it, drop it off at our Boca Raton office, or choose on-site service and we pick it up. When the physical certificate arrives and passes review, we submit it, and the 2, 3-to-5, or 6-to-8 business days count from that day. Your documents do not go into the state's mail queue; they are hand-delivered to the Secretary of State in Tallahassee, 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 in the price, both directions. If you are outside the United States, you arrange shipping to us, and we send you a credit card authorization form for the return shipping. Our post on how long a Florida apostille takes covers the timing in more detail.

Express, Regular Express, or Standard

Choose 2-Day Express if there is a visa appointment, a travel date, or a filing deadline 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 to the order. 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 are business days, and the times are estimates based on how the Secretary of State's office is running.

If your destination country is not a member of the Hague Convention, your certificate needs an authentication rather than an apostille, which is a longer, multi-step process. We assess those orders individually and give you a timeline before you pay.

Ready to order

A Florida marriage 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 whether the copy you have is the right one, upload it first and we will tell you.