This is immigration attorney Parviz Malakouti. In this video, we're going to tackle a very
simple subject, which is that of apostilles. What is an apostille? When do you need an
apostille? How do you get one? Apostille are not something that we're that familiar with
in the United States, because a lot of government agencies don't require apostille documents.
Whereas abroad, especially in Europe, apostilles are much more common.
Okay. So first of all, you might need an apostille if you're applying for a visa in Europe or
any type of immigration benefit in Europe, or maybe even asserting any claim in Europe.
You might need to apostille your birth certificate, your baptismal certificate, perhaps a marriage
certificate. It just depends. Basically, what an apostille is, is it's a form of certification
that is a higher level of authentication. Let's give an example. Let's say you have
a birth certificate, a California birth certificate. I'm born in California, so I want to use that
example. If you need to use that California birth certificate to apply for a visa abroad,
let's say in Slovakia, for example, what you'd have to do is basically send in your certified
California birth certificate to the state of California, to their apostille office,
and request an apostille. Now, most states, California and most other
states, when you send in a request for an apostille, you just basically need four items.
You need to send in the actual cover letter, which is usually very simple. The actual document
that you need to be apostilled. In this example, it would be a birth certificate. Your payment,
which typically ranges between 5 and $25, depending on the state. And the last item
that you usually need to send in is a self-addressed envelope that you have put postage on, so
that when the clerk has apostilled the document they can mail it back to you.
I'm going to give an example. Here's a sample of a California apostille for a birth certificate.
That's one example. We've got another one here. This one is from the state of Ohio.
As you can see, it says apostille in big, bold letters at the top. Ohio, by the way,
shout out, the cheapest apostille that I've had to get so far at only $5. But I believe
Illinois is $2. Anyway, here's another sample. This is an apostilled birth certificate from
Pennsylvania. So as you can see, they're pretty simple. There's not much to them. It's basically
the state certifying the authenticity of
the document at hand. I'm going to post in the video description links to California.
How you get a document apostilled in California, Pennsylvania, Ohio. I'll probably put in a
few other big states, maybe Texas as well. One last tip that I want to give you guys
is when you're gathering documentations, birth certificates, apostilles and other documentation,
you want to organize them nicely. So what I use is basically these plastic sleeves,
and then I organize them in this binder. It's a nice brown bound binder. Feels good, it
looks good, and it keeps things organized. I'm going to link to both products in the
video description below, in case you're interested. You don't have to get this one, just something
like it to basically keep the documents in order.
If you have any general questions, throw them in the comment section. I'll be happy to answer
them. If you have any specific, maybe more complex questions, click on the link below,
book a consultation, and I'll do my best to help you. So
that's it. Good luck to you. I hope this video helps. I wish you best of luck in whatever
you're applying for that needs an apostille, whether it be citizenship or a visa or whatever.
Take care.