Part 3, Section 6
Authentications and Apostilles

An authentication is a document issued by either the county clerk’s office or the Secretary of State’s office, and attached to a notarized document.  Authentications are normally done when a notarized document needs to be sent out of the state and one or more of the parties involved in the transaction needs verification that the notarization was done by a commissioned notary public and that the notary public had authority to complete the notarial act.  This process does not involve the notary.  It is requested by the signer or other interested party.

When a notarized document needs to be sent to another country, the authentication process can become quite complicated.  It must follow a chain of verifications starting with the county clerk, then to the California Secretary of State, then to the U.S. Secretary of State, then to a foreign consulate in Washington, D.C., and finally to a ministry in the foreign nation.  Each authentication verifies the previous one.

An Apostille is sometimes required for a notarized document going to another country, and very much the same as an authentication, but the process is streamlined.  An Apostille is a document prepared by the Secretary of State which verifies that the notarization was done by a commissioned notary public and that the notary public had authority to complete the act.  The Apostille is attached to the notarized document, and that’s it.  This procedure works for the 80 or so countries that participate in the “Hague Conference”.   
 

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