How to Authenticate a Document in California: Steps and Fees

To authenticate a document in California, you request an apostille from the California Secretary of State, which certifies that the signature and seal on your document are genuine so a foreign government will recognize it. The fee is $20 per document, walk-in service at the Sacramento or Los Angeles office is usually finished within 30 minutes, and mail requests take about two to three weeks. Before the Secretary of State will touch the document, it must already be either a certified public record or an original notarized private document.

What Authentication Actually Means

Authentication is the step that turns a California document into something a foreign authority will accept. For countries that belong to the Hague Apostille Convention, the Secretary of State issues an apostille: a standardized certificate confirming the signature and seal on your document are real. California is the designated competent authority for apostillizing documents that originate in the state.¹

The apostille does one thing: it verifies that the notary, county clerk, or state official who signed your document was authorized to do so. It says nothing about whether the contents are true. Countries outside the Hague Convention use a longer legalization process instead, covered further down.

One boundary worth stating up front: if your document is for use inside the United States or a U.S. territory, you do not need an apostille.² Most notarized California documents are accepted in other states without further authentication under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, though some agencies impose extra requirements for real estate recordings, business registrations, or court filings. Check with the receiving agency before assuming.

Prepare the Document Before You Submit

The Secretary of State will not authenticate a document that hasn’t gone through its correct preliminary step. What that step is depends on what the document is.

Vital records (birth, death, marriage certificates) must come as certified copies from the county recorder or the California Department of Public Health. The state office has kept vital records since July 1905; for anything before that, use the county recorder in the county where the event happened.³
Diplomas and transcripts need certification from the school or university that issued them. An uncertified academic record cannot be authenticated.
Private documents such as powers of attorney and corporate resolutions must first be notarized by a California notary public. The apostille then authenticates the notary’s signature, not the document itself.⁴

Photocopies are never accepted. You must submit the original notarized or certified document.

How to Submit Your Request to the Secretary of State

Every request needs two things: the original document, and a cover sheet stating the country where the document will be used along with your return address and contact information. The Secretary of State provides a template, but a self-written cover sheet is fine as long as it has the required information.⁵ The destination country cannot be the United States or a U.S. territory.

Fees

The base fee is $20 per apostille. In-person requests also carry a $6 special handling fee for each different public official’s signature that needs authentication. A document with two officials’ signatures brought in person would run $20 plus $12.⁴

In Person

Both the Sacramento and Los Angeles offices accept walk-ins with no appointment. Processing typically finishes within 30 minutes, and you should arrive by 4:30 p.m. to be sure of same-day service.⁶

Sacramento: 1500 11th Street, 3rd Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814. Accepts credit cards (Visa or Mastercard), checks, money orders, and cash.
Los Angeles: 300 South Spring Street, Ronald Reagan Building, Los Angeles, CA 90013. Accepts credit cards, checks, and money orders. No cash.

By Mail

Mail requests go to the Sacramento office. Send the original document, your cover sheet, and a check or money order payable to “Secretary of State” for $20 per apostille. The office’s website posts the date of requests currently being processed; check it before you send anything. As of early 2026, mailed requests were being handled about two to three weeks after receipt.⁶

Once your request clears, the Secretary of State attaches the apostille certificate. It carries a unique identification number that foreign authorities can verify through California’s online e-Register system.¹

Why Requests Get Rejected

Rejection is common, and almost always traces back to something wrong with the notarization or certification. If your document comes back, you’ll need it re-notarized or re-certified and then resubmit from scratch. There is no expedited correction path.

The notary’s commission had expired on the date of notarization, even by one day.
The notary’s signature on your document doesn’t match what the Secretary of State has on file.
Extra wording appears on the notarial certificate. California requires exact statutory language for acknowledgments and jurats, and even a phrase like “Signature of Notary Public” printed below the signature line has been flagged.⁷⁸
The notary’s seal impression is faded, smudged, or incomplete, so the office can’t read the commission details.
A county clerk certification was required for the document type and was skipped.
A photocopy was submitted instead of an original.⁴

Two things you can do at the notary stage to avoid trouble: bring current or recently expired (within five years) government-issued identification such as a California driver’s license or U.S. passport,⁹ and confirm before signing that the notary is using the current California-mandated acknowledgment or jurat form without additions.

Documents Going to Non-Hague Countries

If your destination country isn’t part of the Hague Apostille Convention, an apostille won’t be accepted there. You need a longer chain called legalization:

The California Secretary of State authenticates the document (same process as an apostille).
The U.S. Department of State’s Office of Authentications certifies the Secretary of State’s signature.
The embassy or consulate of the destination country legalizes the document.

Each step has its own fee and timeline, and requirements vary by country. Some destinations also require a certified translation. Contact the destination country’s embassy or consulate before you start, because each step depends on the one before it and getting the sequence wrong wastes both money and time.

Court Evidence Is a Separate Question

If you’re trying to get a document admitted as evidence in a California court, that’s a different kind of authentication under the Evidence Code, not the Secretary of State process. Certified copies of public records attested by the public employee with legal custody of the original qualify as prima facie evidence.¹⁰ Seals from government agencies, U.S. public entities, and California notaries are presumed genuine.¹¹ Documents from outside California may still need an apostille or consular legalization before a California court will accept them.

Remote Online Notarization Isn’t Available Yet

California authorized remote online notarization through Senate Bill 696, signed on September 30, 2023, but notaries cannot actually perform remote notarizations until the Secretary of State builds out the required technology infrastructure. Some provisions took effect on January 1, 2024, and January 1, 2025, and the law’s final deadline for the system to be operational is January 1, 2030.¹²¹³ For now, every California notarization requires in-person appearance. When remote notarization does become available, a remotely notarized document still goes through the same apostille process at the Secretary of State.

1
Hague Conference on Private International Law. United States of America – Competent Authority
2
California Secretary of State. Mail Apostille Cover Sheet
3
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Where to Write for Vital Records – California
4
California Secretary of State. Request an Apostille
5
California Secretary of State. Apostille Frequently Asked Questions
6
California Secretary of State. Current Processing Dates
7
California Secretary of State. Acknowledgment Form
8
California Legislative Information. California Code Government Code 8202
9
California Public Law. California Code Civil Code 1185 – Acknowledgment of Instrument
10
California Legislative Information. California Code Evidence Code 1530
11
California Legislative Information. California Code Evidence Code 1452
12
California Secretary of State. Customer Alerts
13
LegiScan. Bill Text CA SB696 – Regular Session – Amended