Apostille & Authentication Services in Summerville, SC

In South Carolina, apostilles are issued by the Secretary of State in Columbia. The document has to reach that office in acceptable form, with the state fee, and then come back to you. You can do that yourself by mail. Most people who call us are short on time, are sending documents overseas for the first time, or have already had a package returned.

An apostille is a certificate the state attaches to a document so a foreign government will accept it without further proof. It is used between countries that are party to the Hague Apostille Convention. For countries outside that convention the state issues an authentication instead, and the document usually goes on to that country's embassy or consulate afterwards.

What we do: we notarize the documents you provide when a notarial act is what the state requires, prepare and submit the request to the Secretary of State, handle the courier leg, and coordinate the return. What we do not do is give legal or immigration advice, or tell you which document your receiving country will accept. If a consulate, university or employer has given you a list of requirements, bring us that list and we will work to it.

Documents we handle most often: powers of attorney, single-status and other affidavits, corporate and business records, school records, and government-issued records that already carry the issuing office's own signature.

Turnaround depends on the state's own processing times, not on us. When a deadline is genuinely tight, we drive the package to Columbia and hand-carry it rather than mailing it. That run is quoted per job, because it depends on the day, the number of documents and how fast you need them back — so there is no fixed price printed here.