How to Fill Out and Submit the Maryland Apostille Request Form

The Maryland apostille request form is a short mailing checklist you download from the Secretary of State’s Certifications page at sos.maryland.gov, fill out with your contact information and destination country, and send in with your documents, a $5 payment per document, and a return envelope. You can also bring it in person to the Certification Desk in Annapolis on weekday mornings.¹

What to Put on the Form

The checklist itself is straightforward. You’ll enter your name, phone number, and mailing address; the destination country where the documents will be used; and the number of documents enclosed.¹

The destination country field matters. It tells the office whether to issue an apostille (for Hague Convention countries) or a certificate of authentication (for non-member countries). Getting it wrong means the wrong certificate on your document.

What to Send With the Form

Your mailing envelope needs four items:

The original documents, in their certified or notarized form
The completed checklist form
A U.S. check or U.S. money order for $5 per document, made payable to the Secretary of State
A stamped, self-addressed return envelope with enough postage, or a prepaid FedEx or UPS shipping label

Cash is not accepted for mailed requests. If you send cash, the office returns the entire package unprocessed. Without a return envelope, the office has no way to send authenticated documents back to you.

Where to Submit It

By Mail

Send the complete package to:

Maryland Secretary of State
Fred L. Wineland Building
16 Francis Street
Annapolis, MD 21401

Turnaround depends on shipping. FedEx and UPS submissions come back in one to two days. USPS Priority Mail takes up to three to four days. Regular mail takes up to a week.¹

In Person

The Certification Desk at the Wineland Building accepts walk-ins Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., excluding state holidays.¹ Walk-in visitors can pay with a check, money order, or a credit or debit card.² Arrive early. The desk closes at 1 p.m., not later.

Get the Document Ready Before You Submit

Not every document is ready to go to the Secretary of State the moment you have it in hand. The form itself is simple; what trips people up is the document that goes with it.

Records that come from a Maryland state or county office with an official seal and authorized signature can be submitted directly. That includes birth, death, marriage, and divorce records from the Maryland Department of Health; documents certified by a Clerk of the Circuit Court; good-standing certificates and other state agency filings; and government-issued records like police background checks and motor vehicle ownership documents.¹

Private documents take an extra step. Powers of attorney, corporate bylaws, and school transcripts must first be notarized by a commissioned Maryland notary public, then taken to the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the notary holds a commission for certification of the notary’s signature. Only then can the Secretary of State issue the apostille.¹

For diplomas and transcripts, contact your university’s registrar first. Most schools require the original so they can produce a notarized copy. The registrar does not handle the apostille itself, so you still take the notarized copy through the Circuit Court and then to the Secretary of State.³

Why Requests Get Sent Back

The office reviews every submission before attaching an apostille. Most rejections are preventable:

Skipping the Circuit Court step for a notarized private document. This is the most common mistake.
An expired notary commission at the time of notarization, which voids the notarization entirely and requires a fresh one.
A notary certificate missing the venue, date, or required language.
Any alteration made after notarization.
Wrong jurisdiction. The Secretary of State can only apostille documents notarized or issued in Maryland.
No return envelope or no payment.

Returned packages usually come back with a note explaining the problem. Fix the issue and resubmit. The $5 fee applies again on resubmission.

When This Form Doesn’t Apply

Federal documents — FBI background checks, federal court records, immigration paperwork — cannot be apostilled at the state level and don’t belong on this form. They go to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Authentications in Washington, D.C.⁴

An apostille also only works in countries that are members of the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention. If your destination country is not a member, the document needs full embassy legalization instead, which runs through the Secretary of State, then the U.S. Department of State, then the destination country’s embassy or consulate. You can check membership on the Hague Conference on Private International Law’s status table at hcch.net.⁵

1
Maryland Secretary of State. Certifications and Authentication
2
Montgomery County, Maryland. Apostille or Standard Certification of Documents for International Use
3
University of Maryland. Notary and Apostille Credential Certification
4
U.S. Department of State. Office of Authentications
5
HCCH. Convention of 5 October 1961 – Status Table