How Do You Apostille Documents for a Nomad Visa?

An apostille is a certificate attached to a public document by a designated authority in the country that issued it. It verifies the signature, the capacity of the signer, and any seal or stamp, so a receiving country can trust the document without further checks. It does not verify the contents, only that the document is authentic.

It exists because of the 1961 Hague Convention, formally the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. The treaty now has around 130 contracting parties and replaced a slow chain of consular certifications with one standardised stamp. When both your document's country and your destination are members, the apostille is all you need.

Only a country's own designated Competent Authority can issue an apostille on its documents. In the United States that is the Department of State for federal documents and each state's Secretary of State for state documents. In the UK it is the FCDO. You cannot apostille a foreign document at home; it has to be done where the document was issued.

The criminal-record certificate is the document almost every applicant has to apostille, because it comes from a government and consulates will not accept it raw. It is the single most common apostille in a nomad-visa file, and for US citizens it is the FBI report, which can only be apostilled federally.

Family and qualification documents come next. If you bring a spouse or children, expect to apostille marriage and birth certificates so the relationship is recognised. Some programmes, like Spain's, accept a degree as proof of qualification, and that degree or professional certificate may need an apostille too. Private documents, such as a sworn affidavit or a company letter, usually have to be notarised first before they can be apostilled.

• Almost always: the criminal-record certificate (for Americans, the FBI report).
• For family applications: marriage and birth certificates.
• Sometimes: degree or professional-qualification certificates.
• Private documents: notarise first, then apostille.

If your destination country is not in the Hague Convention, an apostille is useless there and you need the older process, consular legalisation. That is a chain: the notary or issuing authority, then a state or national authentication, then a stamp from the destination country's embassy or consulate. It is slower, costs more, and involves the embassy directly.

Most popular nomad destinations are Hague members, so the apostille route usually applies. But always confirm the destination is a contracting party, and that it has not objected to your issuing country's membership, before you assume an apostille will be accepted. The Hague Conference publishes a live status table for exactly this check.

Government fees are modest. The US Department of State charges $20 per document for a federal apostille; a state Secretary of State charges from nothing to around $20. The UK FCDO charges £40 for a standard apostille, or £35 for the e-apostille. Private courier services add a premium for speed, often another $55 to $95 per document.

Timing is the real risk. A state-level apostille can be same-week, but the US State Department's federal queue runs from around 10 business days to six or eight weeks by mail, and the UK FCDO adds roughly 5 to 7 working days. Because your police certificate may only be valid for 90 days, a slow apostille can eat most of that window. Pay to expedite if your appointment is close.

Translation comes last. Countries like Spain require a sworn translation into the local language, and it should be done after the apostille is attached so the apostille itself is translated, not just the underlying document. An apostille never expires on its own, but the document it certifies often does, so the clock you actually watch is the certificate's validity, not the apostille's.