Nevada Apostille: Requirements, Fees, and Rejection Reasons

A Nevada apostille is a certificate issued by the Nevada Secretary of State that verifies the signature and seal on a Nevada public document so the document will be accepted in the more than 120 countries that belong to the Hague Apostille Convention. The fee is $20 per document, and standard processing takes about four weeks.¹ If your destination country is not a Hague member, the same office issues a certification instead, using a different format that non-Hague countries recognize.²

Which Documents Qualify

The Secretary of State can only authenticate documents that carry the signature and seal of a recognized Nevada official, or private documents that have been notarized by a Nevada notary public.

Vital Records

Birth and death certificates must be certified copies from the Nevada Office of Vital Records and Statistics. A hospital-issued birth certificate does not carry the state registrar’s signature and will be rejected. Marriage certificates must come from the County Clerk’s office where the marriage was recorded.¹

Corporate Filings

Documents already on record with the Secretary of State, such as Articles of Incorporation or a certificate of good standing, are eligible. Contact the Copies Division at 775-684-5708 for the procedural steps before submitting.¹

Notarized Private Documents

Powers of attorney, business contracts, affidavits, academic transcripts, and diplomas are not signed by a state official, so they must first be notarized by a Nevada notary public. The Secretary of State then authenticates the notary’s signature and commission. If the notary did not follow the identity verification requirements in NRS 240, the authentication will not be issued.³

For something like a diploma, expect a chain: a school official signs a statement affirming the diploma is authentic, a notary notarizes that signature, and the Secretary of State apostilles the notary. Skip a link and the package comes back.

Apostille or Certification: Destination Country Decides

Nevada is a dual-document state. Hague Convention countries get the trilingual apostille. Non-Hague countries get a certification that carries the same authentication information in a different format.² For non-Hague countries, you may also need to take the certified document to that country’s U.S. embassy or consulate for a separate legalization step, with its own fees and timeline.

The order form asks you to name the destination country, and the office uses that to decide which certificate to issue. Getting it wrong means the document may not be accepted where you need it.¹

Fees and Payment

The authentication fee for a notarized document is $20, set by NRS 240.1657.² That is per document, so five documents cost $100. Expedited processing is available at higher fees; check the current schedule on the Secretary of State’s website or the order form itself, since those fees are set by regulation and can change.⁴

Accepted payment methods are money order, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. If paying by card, include the card number and expiration on the order form. Personal checks are not listed as accepted.¹

How to Submit Your Request

Every submission needs three things: the original document (or a certified copy with the official seal), a completed and signed Apostille/Certification Order Form, and payment. One form can cover multiple documents. The form requires your email address, the destination country, and a valid return address.¹

You also have to sign a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the document will not be used to harass anyone or for any fraudulent or unlawful purpose. That comes from the statute, and the apostille will not issue without it.²

Three submission options are available:

Mail to the main office: Nevada Secretary of State, 401 North Carson St., Carson City, NV 89701
Mail to Las Vegas: Nevada Secretary of State, 1 State of Nevada Way, Las Vegas, NV 89119
In person: walk-in counter service in Carson City, dropbox at the Las Vegas office

Both mailing addresses accept the same submissions, and Carson City is the main processing center.⁵

Processing Times and Return Shipping

Standard processing runs about four weeks.¹ Expedited service is faster but costs more. If you are working toward a job start date or a school enrollment, plan for the four-week baseline plus mail time each way, and pay for expedited service if the math does not fit.

Finished documents come back by first-class mail unless you include a prepaid, self-addressed envelope or a shipping label for a carrier like FedEx or UPS. A few return-shipping rules trip people up:

No “Bill to Sender” labels. FedEx and other carrier labels must be prepaid or set to “Bill to Recipient.”
FedEx labels must be printed. Handwritten address information on FedEx shipments is not accepted.
Without a prepaid international shipping label, international returns go by first-class international mail with no tracking.¹

A trackable return label is worth the cost, because losing an authenticated original in the mail sets your timeline back weeks.

Common Reasons Requests Get Rejected

A rejected package eats weeks from your timeline. The frequent problems:

A hospital-issued birth certificate instead of a certified copy from the Office of Vital Records.
A notary whose commission has lapsed, or a notary signature that does not match the Secretary of State’s records. Every signature is cross-referenced against the active commission database.
An order form missing the destination country, the email address, or a valid return address.¹
Scanned PDFs or home photocopies. The office requires the original or a certified copy with an official seal.
Notarized documents with unfilled blank spaces.

Running your packet against this list before mailing is the cheapest way to avoid a delay.

Federal Documents Go Through Washington

The Nevada Secretary of State can only authenticate documents from Nevada officials or Nevada notaries. Federal records, including FBI background checks and federal court orders, cannot be apostilled by any state. Those go to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Authentications in Washington, D.C., which has its own fees and timelines. If you need both a Nevada apostille on a birth certificate and a federal apostille on an FBI background check, you are working with two separate offices and should plan the calendar accordingly.

Translations

The apostille certificate is trilingual, but the underlying document is in English. Many non-English-speaking countries require a certified translation, which includes the translator’s signed statement of accuracy, before their authorities will accept the document.

The translation requirement comes from the destination country, not Nevada. Ask the receiving institution or agency abroad what they want before you submit. Sometimes the translation has to happen after the apostille is attached, because foreign authorities want the translator to describe the apostille certificate itself. Getting the order wrong can force you to start over.

Penalties for Misuse

Using an apostilled document to harass someone, or for any fraudulent or unlawful purpose, is a category C felony in Nevada, punishable by one to five years in state prison and a fine of up to $5,000.² The perjury statement on the order form is enforceable, not decorative.

1
Nevada Secretary of State. Apostille
2
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 240 – Notaries Public and Commissioned Abstracters – Section: NRS 240.1657
3
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 240 – Notaries Public and Commissioned Abstracters
4
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 225 – Secretary of State – Section: NRS 225.140
5
Nevada Secretary of State. Submission Instructions