Apostille North Carolina Services

• If you do not supply a pre-paid shipping document, the document will be returned via regular mail.
• Enclose a pre-paid shipping document if you wish to have the document(s) returned via a courier service.
• If you wish to use ground delivery for either FedEx or UPS, we will contact you when the documents are ready and you will have to schedule a pick up of those documents.
• The Secretary of State’s Office is a scheduled Air delivery (not ground delivery) pick-up location for UPS and FedEx.
• Documents submitted without a return envelope and postage will be returned regular delivery by the United State Postal Service to the person submitting the documents.
• Any documents received without a pre-paid return envelope will be delivered by regular mail to a United States address.
• A pre-paid courier label is not a handwritten or typed label with account information.
• A pre-paid courier label is obtained online and paid for at the time you print the bar-coded label.

• not having an acknowledgement on each document presented;
• the State and county where the document is being executed is not indicated;
• the expiration date is either missing or incorrect;
• the notary stamp or seal is missing;
• the notary did not sign his/her name exactly as represented in the commission and/or stamp or seal;
• the notary public has certified to statements within the document and/or was party to a document, (i.e., the Notary Public’s name should only appear in the acknowledgement and not in the document itself); and the acknowledgement must be in English.
  • If a document is presented in a language other than English the NC Secretary of State’s Office will require a certified or notarized English translation.
  • Before documents are sent to the NC Authentication Office, they must have the proper signatures (original signatures only)
  • Documents must be notarized by a North Carolina Notary Public unless they were issued by one of the following officials:
  • Register of Deeds
  • Clerk of Superior Court
  • NC Department of Agriculture
  • NC Department of Health and Human Services
  • NC Vital Records
  • NC Department of Motor Vehicles (Raleigh, NC office ONLY)
  • NC Attorney General's Office
  • NC Legislative Services
  • Documents (transcripts, report cards, diplomas, etc.) issued by a North Carolina university, college, community college or high school must be notarized by a North Carolina Notary Public. A school seal applied to the document by the school registrar is not acceptable.
  • All North Carolina agency documents must be certified

• Our office is located in downtown Raleigh at 2 South Salisbury Street in the Old Revenue Building Complex.
• The public entrance is on the corner of Salisbury Street and Morgan Street.

• Make your payment payable to the "NC Secretary of State."
• money order or check

8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Monday – Friday except Federal and State Holidays.

• Official Website
• NC Apostille Info
• North Carolina Document Verification process
• North Carolina Bureau of Vital Record
• Guideline for North Carolina Authentications