An Apostille or an Authentication certifies the authenticity of the signature, seal and position of the official who has executed, issued or certified a copy of a public document. An Apostille or an Authentication enables a public document issued in one country to be recognized as valid in another country. While they accomplish the same objective, there are differences between Apostilles and Authentications.
An Apostille is a certification form set out in The Hague Convention abolishing the requirement of legalization for foreign public documents (1961).
An Apostille may be obtained to transmit public documents executed in one signatory country to another signatory country in which the documents need to be produced. The Hague Convention defines a “public document” as:
Those originating in a court, clerk of a court, public prosecutor or process server;
Administrative documents;
Notarial acts; and
Official certificates are placed on documents.
An Authentication may be obtained to transmit public documents to countries that have not subscribed to The Hague Convention.
What is TSLA Record Certification?
If needed, the Library and Archives can certify a copy of a record held in our collection. There is a fee of $5.00 to certify one copy of the document, in addition to the initial search fee. If you wish for more than one copy of a record to be certified, each additional certification is $5.00.
If you think certification may be needed, please indicate this when the initial copy order is placed, as we cannot certify after-the-fact any copies that have left our facility. We cannot certify copies of items that we have not copied ourselves. If you decide at a later date that you need items certified that you have already received, we will have to charge you for the order a second time and re-copy all the materials.
The Library and Archives cannot certify electronic copies (scans) of documents.
If you pay in advance for a record search and certification and the record is not located, neither the search fee nor the certification fee are refundable. For this reason, when searching for a record that you wish to have certified, the Library and Archives suggests that you use our downloadable forms and pay by credit card. If you pay by credit card and a record is not located, then you will not be charged the additional $5.00 certification fee.