Does your Power of Attorney need an Apostille?

If you have a business or personal family matters in a country, member of the Hague Apostille Convention, you will need to obtain an Apostille on your Power of Attorney. By getting your Power of Attorney apostilled, you can save time and money on travel to the country where your Power of Attorney is destined to.  For instance, you have a property in Panama and want to sell it. You can appoint your family member or another person in Panama to handle the sale on your behalf while you remain in the United States. 

If you want to get an Apostille on your Power of Attorney, you must mail in the original notarized copy of the document to our office for processing.  A Power of Attorney can only be authenticated by the State where the documents were notarized. The Notary Public must be commissioned and use proper notarial affidavit for their State.

Please note that the Secretary of State is not authorized to authenticate documents notarized in other States.  So, if your Power of Attorney was signed and notarized in the State of Alabama, only the Alabama Secretary of State can issue an Apostille for your Power of Attorney. In some states, there is an additional requirement of having the notarized document also be authenticated by the County Clerk.  The States are Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, and Tennessee.

The best way to avoid any issues with your Power of Attorney being properly done is to have it prepared by the competent professionals in the country where you need to use your Power of Attorney. For instance, if you intend to use your Power of Attorney in Russia, we recommend that your Power of Attorney is executed by a Russian attorney in both Russian and English languages.  We advise writing the document in two languages, as some US States will not put an Apostille on a document written in a foreign language.  If you are abroad and require a Power of Attorney authenticated for a country other than the United States, you will need to contact the US Embassy or a Consular Office and have a US Federal Notary sign your document. 

Obtaining an apostille can be intricate. Avoid leaving this task for inexperienced staff or non-professionals who are not fully aware of the complexities of the apostille process and the unique requirements of certain countries. Your application may be rejected, and you lose time and money. Make a better choice!

Our experts are available Monday through Saturday from 10.00 AM to 6.00 PM. Please call us at 1-770-447-0360 and we will answer all your questions and offer easy to follow detailed instructions.