Getting an Apostille for Marriage Certificate
How To Get an Apostille for Your Marriage Certificate?
Your marriage certificate is from Virginia.
Therefore it has to go Virginia Secretary of the Commonwealth.
For your adoption, you need 2 apostilled marriage certificates.
You would have to contact the county which issued your marriage certificate and get 4 certified copies all together. 2 of these 4 are for your dossier.
Since the marriage certificates are issued by the state, they do NOT need to be notarized.
You will send them to the Secretary of the Commonwealth for Apostille.
Their address is:
Authentications Director
Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth
1111 East Broad Street, 1st Floor
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Virginia charges $10 per document per document. However, according to their “Authentication Request Form”, “If there are several documents signed by the same public official (notary public, deputy clerk) on the same date for the same country, the fee is $10 for the first document and $5 for each additional document. I believe this means your 2 marriage certificates should be a total of $15. $10 for the first one and $5 for the second one. To double check that you can call or email the Secretary at:
804 692 0114
To pay the fee, you can use a personal check. Make out check or money order to Virginia Secretary of the Commonwealth. Make sure your marriage certificate is issued from Vital Records in the past 12 months. Vital Records can be reached at 804 662 6200.
Please use a pre-paid envelope with a tracking number for the return mail.
You the Secretary at 804 692 0114 to verify nothing has changes since these instructions were created for you. Please verify that the address and the fees are the same. Ask them if they have a preferred mail courier for the return mail. Ask if anything is different due to Covid?
Below, for your convenience is the Cover Letter that VA uses to process apostilles.
What To Do With Birth Certificates?
Good news! Your birth certificates DO NOT need to be apostilled.
They still need to be included in your dossier, just don’t need an apostille. Please include 1 certified original in each set of your dossier. (Your dossier is in 2 sets).
What About Any Divorce Certificates?
For any divorces, the divorce certificates need to be presented with the adoption dossier. Only photocopies of these divorce certificates/degrees are required. No apostilles. Just copies of each one.
