How does an
apostille look?
A USA apostille certificate or USA authentication certificate will be issued by one of the fifty U.S states or by the U.S Department of State, and will be an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper that is attached to your document either by a staple (TXSOS) or a grommet (USDOS).
Some states, like Texas as of 10/1/23, will place a stamp/seal on it (half the stamp will purposely be put on the apostille certificate and the other half on your document) and intitials of the government employee who apostilled it are also placed next to the stamp/seal), and other states don’t use stamps/seals like Texas didn’t before October 1st, 2023.
Your apostille certificate or authentication certificate is printed on regular printer paper on the letterhead of the state’s secretary of state office that issued it.
You can go to https://www.apostilletexas.org/department-of-state-apostille to see examples of what the U.S Department of State federal apostille and federal authentication certificates will look like.
