Not every birth certificate copy can be apostilled. Here is how to tell which version to order before you spend time and money on the apostille.

Whether your document gets an apostille or a longer legalization chain depends on the destination country. Here is how to tell which one applies.

Apostilles come from either a state office or the U.S. Department of State, depending on who issued the document. Sending it to the wrong one is a common, avoidable delay.

Citizenship by descent needs records for every person in the line. The failure is almost never the apostille, and almost always the names.

Three different things people are told to get, often interchangeably and often wrongly. What each one is and when it applies.

Most teaching visas want the same three documents, apostilled, with timing that catches people out. What to prepare and when.

A rejection is usually recoverable, and often cheaper to fix than to restart. How to work out where it failed and what still counts.