It depends entirely on the destination country
An apostille and an authentication do the same job, which is to prove that the signature and seal on your document are genuine. Which one you need is decided by one thing only: whether the country receiving the document belongs to the Hague Apostille Convention.
If it does, you need an apostille, and that is the end of the chain. If it does not, you need a certificate of authentication followed by legalization at that country's embassy or consulate, and sometimes a final attestation once the document arrives.
How to check in under a minute
Look up the destination on the HCCH status table, which is the official list, or check our country guides. Members include Mexico, Spain, India, China, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Australia, and most of Europe and Latin America. Vietnam joined on September 11, 2026.
Common non-members we see are the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, and Taiwan. Thailand joins on February 28, 2027, so documents sent before that date still go through legalization.
Why it matters before you pay for anything
An apostille sent to a non-member country gets rejected, and an authentication prepared for a Hague country is a waste of time and money. Both mistakes are easy to avoid and expensive to fix.
There is a second trap. Federal documents, including FBI background check results, are apostilled only by the U.S. Department of State. State documents go to the Secretary of State of the state that issued them. Sending a federal document to a state office, or the reverse, means starting again.
What to do next
Send us a photo of your document and tell us the destination country. We will tell you which route it takes and what it costs before you spend anything. Call (971) 514-3743 or use the form on any page.