How to Get a DC Apostille: Documents, Submission, and Rejections

To get a DC apostille, take or mail your original document to the D.C. Office of Notary Commissions and Authentications (ONCA) at 899 North Capitol Street NE, Suite 8100, along with a completed Request for Authentication of Documents form and $15 per document.¹ That office handles paperwork issued or notarized inside the District. Documents signed by federal officials, including FBI background checks, go to the U.S. Department of State instead. Sending a document to the wrong office is the most common reason a package comes back unprocessed, so confirm which track applies before you do anything else.

Confirm You Actually Need an Apostille

An apostille only works if your document is going to a country that belongs to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention.² For a non-member country, you need an authentication certificate followed by legalization at that country’s U.S. embassy or consulate.³ Check your destination country’s status on the Hague Conference website before you file anything.

The apostille itself does not verify what your document says. It verifies that the notary or official who signed it was authorized to do so in D.C. at the time.¹ That narrow purpose is what drives every rule below.

Which Documents ONCA Can Apostille

ONCA can only apostille documents that originate in the District of Columbia. Two categories qualify:

D.C. government-issued records, including birth, marriage, and death certificates from D.C. agencies, and court documents from the D.C. Superior Court.
Privately notarized documents such as powers of attorney, corporate resolutions, and educational paperwork, provided they carry the seal and signature of a notary commissioned in the District of Columbia.¹

Educational documents trip people up. A diploma or transcript from a D.C. university does not qualify on its own. It has to be notarized first by a D.C.-commissioned notary. Some D.C. schools keep notaries in their registrar’s office who handle this routinely.⁴

What ONCA cannot help with: anything issued by a federal agency, and anything notarized or issued in another state. A Virginia notary seal sends you to Virginia’s Secretary of State no matter where you happen to live.

What to Gather Before You Submit

Have these ready:

The original document. Photocopies are not accepted, so a certified copy from the issuing D.C. agency is what you need for vital records.
The Request for Authentication of Documents form from the D.C. Office of the Secretary website. It asks for the destination country and your contact information.⁵
$15 per document. Mail-in requests must pay by check or money order from a U.S. financial institution, made out to “DC Treasurer.” Confirm accepted payment methods at the office for in-person visits.⁵
A prepaid return envelope if you are mailing your request. Use a trackable service; losing an original vital record is not a small problem.⁵

Naming the correct destination country matters beyond the form itself. Some countries layer their own rules on top of the convention, such as requiring translations or refusing to accept background checks and marriage certificates older than six months, even though the apostille has no expiration date. Ask the receiving institution what it needs before you file.

How to Submit

In Person

ONCA takes walk-ins Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, excluding holidays. No appointment needed.¹ This is the fastest option if your timeline is tight.

By Mail

Send the completed form, original documents, payment, and prepaid return envelope to the ONCA office. Mail requests are generally processed within two to three business days of arrival, though shipping time on both ends is on you.⁵ Track both directions.

Federal Documents Go to the State Department

If a federal official signed your document, ONCA cannot help. FBI background checks, federal court records, and similar paperwork go to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Authentications. The fee is $20 per document, paid by check or money order to “U.S. Department of State,” and every request must include Form DS-4194.⁶

Three processing tracks are available depending on when you need the documents:

Mail-in requests to 44132 Mercure Circle, P.O. Box 1206, Sterling, VA 20166-1206, with processing up to five weeks from receipt. Use this if you are traveling in five or more weeks.⁷
Walk-in drop-off at 600 19th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20006, Monday through Thursday from 7:30 AM to 9:00 AM, processed in seven business days.⁷
Same-day appointments, available only for life-or-death emergencies involving an immediate family member abroad, at the same 600 19th Street NW location Monday through Thursday, 10:00 AM to 2:30 PM.⁷

What Gets Requests Rejected

Most rejections trace back to a short list of avoidable problems:

Wrong office. Federal documents sent to ONCA, or D.C. documents sent to the State Department, come back untouched.
Non-D.C. notary. A Maryland or Virginia notary seal fails even if the document was signed in D.C.¹
Incomplete notarization. Missing signature, seal, or commission date means ONCA cannot match the notary to its records.
Photocopies where originals are required.
Wrong or missing destination country on the form.
For mail-in requests, missing payment or a missing return envelope, which stalls the whole package.

One last check before you count the job done: the receiving country can still refuse a properly apostilled document if it fails that country’s own requirements. Freshness rules catch people out most often. A birth certificate apostilled two years ago is technically valid under the convention, but an immigration office that demands documents less than six months old will send it back anyway. Confirm what the receiving institution wants before you start.

1
Office of the Secretary. Authentications
2
HCCH. Convention of 5 October 1961 – Status Table
3
U.S. Department of State. Preparing a Document for an Apostille Certificate
4
American University Washington College of Law. The Apostille Process
5
Government of the District of Columbia. Request for Authentication of Documents
6
U.S. Department of State. Request for Authentications Service (DS-4194)
7
U.S. Department of State. Requesting Authentication Services