Apostille + Translation

The apostille is issued by the competent authority in the country that issued the document. For US documents, state-issued documents (birth certificates, marriage certificates, state background checks, notarized documents) are apostilled by the Secretary of State in the state where the document was issued, and federal documents (FBI Identity History Summary, documents certified by a federal court, or documents notarized by a US embassy) are apostilled by the US Department of State. Each authority has its own processing times and procedures. We do not handle this step or quote its timelines — confirm them with the relevant US authority — but we make sure your translation is ready as soon as the apostille is in hand.

One nuance trips people up: if the destination authority requires the translation itself (not only the underlying document) to be apostilled, then the translation must also be apostilled. This is determined by the receiving authority and the specifics of your procedure. We will tell you plainly that this requirement exists and where it applies in the sequence, but the apostille of the translation is, again, a government step performed by the competent authority — not a service we sell. Confirm with the receiving authority whether your procedure needs the translation apostilled.

Here is the order of operations. First, the document is apostilled in its country of origin by the competent authority (for US documents, the relevant Secretary of State for state documents, or the US Department of State for federal documents) — a government step we do not perform. Second, you send us clear scans of the document with its apostille attached. Third, a CTP-certified translator produces the Spanish translation of both the document and the apostille certificate, delivered with a cover sheet, the translator's colegiatura number, post-firma seals, and a declaración jurada. Fourth, you submit the complete package to the Peruvian authority that requires it. This sequence eliminates the common mistake of submitting a translation that omits the apostille.

If the document was issued in a country that is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, the apostille route is unavailable. Instead, the document is legalized through the issuing country's foreign ministry, then a Peruvian consulate, and then Peru's Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores. The principle is the same as with apostille: the authentication chain is completed first, then the certified Spanish translation of the document and its legalization is produced. We provide the translation; the legalization steps are government functions handled by the respective authorities.

The most frequent mistake is translating too early — before the document has been apostilled — which forces a second pass to translate the apostille. The second is assuming Peru will apostille a foreign document; it will not, because Peru's Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores apostilles only Peruvian public documents. The third is overlooking that, for some procedures, the destination authority also requires the translation itself to be apostilled. We flag each of these so you can complete the government steps in the right order and send us the document for certified translation at the right time. We do not perform, procure, or charge for any apostille or legalization step.