An apostille is in fact an authentication off your official documents like diploma, birth certificate, death certificate, free to marry certificate, official transcript, and enrollment and graduation verification letters, etc for use in foreign countries signatory to the Hague Apostille Convention 1961. In some cases, notarized documents such as academic degrees, employment, income and medical certificates, property/real estate documents also need to be apostilled.
South Korean Apostille
South Korea is also a signatory to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention. Thus, you just need to apostille your South Korean documents for use in countries signatory to the Hague Convention Apostille. Getting an apostille document for all legal and public documents is mandatory to process further because it confirms the position and nature of the official who has executed, issued or certified copy of an official document. For instance, if you intend to pursue graduate study in the US, you would need to apostille all of your college transcripts along with other documents. Similarly, if you attended school, college or university in the US and want to seek employment overseas such as in South Korea, you would need all your documents apostilled.
How to Apostille South Korean Certificates
Any document destined for South Korea from the US needs to be apostilled by the US authorities such as the Secretary of State. The purpose of the Hague Apostille Convention is to simplify the process of authentication to make sure that the document is indeed original. You need to do this by getting your local state official, county clerk, notary public, secretary of state signing an ‘original copy’ of your ‘original document’.
**Note that we can only apostille documents originating/issued from the US for South Korean apostille certificate. On the other hand, Korean documents originating in south korea can only be apostilled at the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Korean Apostille Issuing Authority.
With that said, the most common documents apostilled for South Korea include:
- Passports
- Driver’s license
- Adoption document
- Affidavit
- Bank document
- Certificate of naturalization
- Car title
- Diploma
- Divorce decree
- Death certificate
- Free to marry
- FBI records, background checks (local, state)
- FBI apostille for South Korea
- Travel consent letter
- Power of Attorney
- Notarized documents
- Transcripts
- Corporate Power of Attorney
- Living trust legalization
- Commercial license
- Certificate of good standing, etc.
Get Help from Professionals
The process is complicated and cumbersome depending on the nature of the documents that need to be apostilled. It must not be left to non-professionals who don’t know the apostille process as it could cost you both lost time and money. You can seek help from our professional apostille attorneys by simply filling out the apostille form below. You will then just need to sit back receive your apostilled south korean documents in your mail.
DOWNLOAD THE APOSTILLE FORM HERE