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AUSTIN—Beginning October 1, the Office of the Texas Secretary of State will update its current Apostille format to a universal Apostille/single certificate.
The Apostille is a certificate that certifies the origin of public records that are required for use abroad. As the designated authority, the Office of the Secretary of State is the only agency that can provide this service to the public for public records originated in Texas.
This update only affects the internal operations of the agency and does not require the public to provide additional information or take any additional steps to get their public records certified.
The United States is one of 125 nations party to the Apostille Convention, with each state maintaining its own designated authority to issue Apostilles to the public. Historically, our office issued two different certificates—one for contracting parties to the Apostille Convention and one for non-contracting parties. Our office will now issue a single certificate that can be used for contracting and non-contracting parties to the Apostille convention.
The universal apostille will be trilingual (offering Spanish, French, and English translation), it will offer a specified URL link for verification, and will include an additional security feature. Most importantly, additional language is included to delineate the effect of the document for contracting and non-contracting parties to the convention.
This document will operate in the same manner as the previous certificate for countries that are not party to the Apostille Convention, and will still require additional authentication from the Office of Authentications within the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.
For additional information regarding the Apostilles, please see frequently asked questions.
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