Governmental Apostilles, Certificates and Authentications

If you are residing in the United States and you are not planning to use your educational degree outside of the United States, you do not need any documents described on this page

These documents are used for the issuance of Apostilles and Certifications

NOTE: THERE ARE NO LAWS (in the United States) REQUIRING OBTAINING OF DOCUMENTS DESCRIBED ON THIS PAGE, BUT IT IS USUALLY RECOMMENDED BECAUSE IT SERVES AS AN ADDITIONAL CONFIRMATION OF THE DEGREE ISSUANCE.

OBTAINING OF DOCUMENTS DESCRIBED ON THIS PAGE IS RECOMMENDED IF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE EDUCATION (outside of the United States) IN YOUR COUNTRY (or in any other country), OR IF YOU WANT TO PERFORM SOME OTHER OFFICIAL STEPS REGARDING YOUR DEGREE (for example, you were awarder Master's Degree in the university located in the "Country A" and want to attend PhD degree program in the university located in the "Country B"). Doctoral and PhD degrees are the highest educational degrees; therefore, usually education stops at doctoral level, unless person wants to receive second doctoral degree or to continue other forms of education.

Documents described on this page are only issued if you are planning to use your degree outside of the United States. 

We are not providing any legal assistance or advice, please do not ask us any questions about laws in your country - you must do your own research and we have no knowledge about different regulations in countries outside of the United States.

Optional documents that are issued to our graduates upon request

(all optional documents have additional costs)

(All images protected by Copyright Law)

FEES LISTED ON THIS PAGE ARE NOT A PART OF EDUCATIONAL COSTS AND CHARGED SEPARATELY

Apostilles and Certificates are issued by the State governmental authorities only for the documents that are supposed to be used outside of the United States.  

Apostilles and Certificates are not made to “recognize” the degree, but only to confirm the fact that the statement issued by the University (statement indicating that Diploma and Transcript are issued to the named person) was notarized in the State of Pennsylvania (or in any other State). This statement (Certification) usually made for the addition notarized copies of the Diploma and Transcript (graduating students are also receiving regular prints of Diploma and Transcript). 

Apostilles and Certificates are only certifying the authenticity of the signature and the capacity of the person who signed public document and, where appropriate, the identity of the seal or stamp attached to the public document (as provided by the State of Pennsylvania laws).

PLEASE NOTE: Documents recognition represents recognition of documents “per se” (Latin phrase meaning "in itself"), in another words, recognition of the fact that documents were issued to the named person. It has no relevance to any form of the degree recognition by employers, by educational authorities, or by the government of your country. Each country has different regulations and Holy State University offers no guarantees of employment, level of salary, eligibility for professional licensing or acceptance of degrees, programs, or accreditations by future employers of the student (or by others). 

Usually, any graduate/postgraduate degrees (degrees above the level of Bachelor's degree) are not falling into the category requiring any form of professional licensing. Therefore, in most countries, it is up to the employer to make a decision regarding graduate/postgraduate degrees. In many countries, the government is not controlling the use of degrees that are not a part of the official licensing requirements.

Only some undergraduate degrees (usually, up to the level of Bachelor's degree) or regulated professional degrees are controlled by the professional licensing authorities and very often, such degrees are only degrees that represent initial training related to the public safety or health-related areas, or sometimes to some other strictly regulated areas of science.

For example, the Bachelor’s degree in engineering (safety issues), or professional degree as a medical doctor or nurse (health/patient's health safety) must be obtained from the universities/programs approved by the government for the purpose of professional licensing requirements (if not, a person usually takes special tests administered by entities/organizations that are authorized by the government - one example represents administration of foreign medical graduates examinations in the United States). At the same time, all Master’s or Doctoral (Doctor of Philosophy - PhD) degrees are graduate/postgraduate degrees (degrees that are improving the professional level of already existing initial professional degree) and these degrees usually are not a subject of governmental regulations (in the United States and in many other countries).

Many undergraduate degrees (usually, up to the level of Bachelor's degree) that are not related to the public safety or health safety areas (or to any other regulated areas) are NOT controlled by any governmental licensing authorities, but only a subject of potential employers' acceptance and market demands. It is a responsibility of an applicant to make decisions regarding these matters.

Convention of 5th October 1961 abolished the requirement of Legalization for foreign public documents

See CONVENTION ABOLISHING THE REQUIREMENT OF LEGALIZATION FOR FOREIGN PUBLIC DOCUMENTS

 (click here for the full text ). This convention is also called the Apostille convention, or the Apostille treaty and is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law.

Learn about Convention

The Convention provides for the simplified certification of public (including notarized) documents to be used in countries that have joined the convention. It specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states (countries). This certification is called an Apostille (French: certification).

See the list of countries accepting CONVENTION ABOLISHING THE REQUIREMENT OF LEGALIZATION FOR FOREIGN PUBLIC DOCUMENTS– click here .

Countries that accepted Convention

THE FOLLOWING SERVICES ARE OFFERED ONLY FOR GRADUATING STUDENTS

We are not performing these services for people that are not our graduates, because we are only collecting actual costs and not charging anything for our services.

These services offered only as a courtesy service for our graduates and each graduating person can perform it in an individual manner (without our help), if desired.

WE ARE NOT CHARGING ANY FEES FOR THESE SERVICES AND WE ARE COLLECTING THE COSTS ONLY (see next).

We are reserving the right not to offer these services or to charge additional customary and reasonable fees for the services provided. Students are not obligated to use our services and can use any company or organization providing similar services.

Apostilles, Certifications and Legalizations are NOT a part of educational process and are NOT included in educational costs. Furthermore, receiving documents described on this page is optional.

Charges:

We are collecting a service cost of $40 (includes costs of paying two-way shipment services, costs of mailing supplies, preparation of documents and other related costs) for EACH submission of documents to EACH governmental office (State office, U.S. Department of State, Foreign Consulate, if needed). This fee covers two-way costs for documents shipment [mailing] to each governmental office. Each governmental office requires that sender of documents must pay for two-way [to and from] delivery service that in most cases must be secure [and more expensive] mail service.

Example: $40 charged for each mailing transaction (for each governmental office, two-way service) can include as many documents as needed (for example, diploma and transcript). This charge is not for each document, but for each two-way mailing transaction ("to" and "from" the governmental agency). Governmental fees are the additional costs and are not covered by this service fee.

Graduates also can select any independent company that may perform these services. These independent companies are usually charging up to $150 for obtaining certificates from each (not from all) governmental agency for each document, in addition to fees charged by governmental offices, plus all mailing costs.

Apostilles are issued by the State (State government documents)

On October 15, 1981, the United States became a member of the 1961 Hague Convention, which abolished the requirement of legalization for foreign public documents. CHECK IF YOUR COUNTRY ONLY REQUIRES PREPARATION OF APOSTILLE(S) FOR FOREIGN DOCUMENTS – click here .

Upon request, we will be ordering the State of Pennsylvania Apostilles.

Cost: $15 (charged by the State of Pennsylvania) per each document (Diploma and Transcript are two documents); plus $40 flat fee (documents preparation, handling and two-way mail delivery services). Processing time by the State can be up to two weeks.

State Apostille is the State issued document destined for use in participating Hague countries and their territories, should be certified by one of the officials in the jurisdiction in which the document was executed. Officials (usually in the office of the State’s Secretary of State) are designated as a competent authority to issue "Apostille" certifications as stated by the 1961 Hague Convention Treaty.

A document with certification as Apostille does not require an additional certification by the U.S. Department of State or legalization by the Embassy or Consulate overseas to be recognized in participating country (countries accepting CONVENTION ABOLISHING THE REQUIREMENT OF LEGALIZATION FOR FOREIGN PUBLIC DOCUMENTS - see list of participating countries - click here )

If your country is Hague Convention signatory, you only need the State issued Apostille(s).

Additional steps must be performed if your country is not Hague Convention signatory.

If your country is not Hague Convention signatory, your documents from the State of Pennsylvania are called "Certificates" instead of "Apostilles"; but in reality, documents are almost identical and costs are the same.

TOTAL COST FOR TWO CONSULATE LEGALIZATIONS / ATTESTATIONS:

- Document #1 (Diploma): Costs are different for each country. Student can verify costs with Embassy/Consulate in the United States (by email)

- Document #2 (Transcript): Costs are different for each country. Student student can verify costs with Embassy/Consulate in the United States (by email)

- Documents preparation, processing, shipping and handling / two-way shipping costs (charged by us) $40.

Total cost: Costs are based on the Embassy/Consulate costs for legalization, plus additional costs of $40.

Processing time by the Consulate can be up to four weeks (average processing time is approximately 2 weeks or longer).

If you feel that Embassy/Consulate fees are expensive, you can only order legalization for one document, for example, only for Diploma.

Almost each Embassy/Consulate has no refund policy for any payment submitted, even if service is not provided. We are not accepting any responsibilities for financial losses due to these arrangements. Person can contact Embassy/Consulate personally, forward to us a list of all requirements from the Embassy/Consulate and we will submit documents (after graduation) to your Embassy/Consulate according to your instructions. If the Embassy/Consulate refuses to provide services (without returning fees), it will be your financial loss (we cannot refund fees that the Consulate of your Country is refusing to refund).

PLEASE NOTE (applies only for Consulates with complicated authentication procedures):

WE ONLY CAN OBTAIN AUTHENTICATION / LEGALIZATION FROM CONSULATES THAT ARE PROVIDING THIS SERVICE BASED ON THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE (AND/OR STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA) CERTIFICATES.  

Many foreign Consulates have straightforward authentications / legalizations of educational documents, based on the U.S. Department of State certificates, but a few countries have very complicated procedures that are extremely time consuming and we are not in the position to offer our services for this sort of affairs.

WE ARE NOT DEALING WITH ANY FOREIGN CONSULATES THAT HAVE COMPLICATED PROCEDURES FOR AUTHENTICATIONS/LEGALIZATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL DOCUMENTS and student must agree to accept only Pennsylvania State Certificates and the U.S. Department of State Certificates.

We also are not dealing with Consulates delegating authentications / legalizations of educational documents to some form of so-called “Cultural Missions”. In these cases it involves a significant amount of work and time consuming collection of documents, and there is no guarantee that authentications / legalizations will be performed. Graduating students must deal personally with these Consulates. If Consulates/and their “Cultural Missions” would require a sealed or certified Transcripts/or Diplomas sent directly to them, graduates can order these documents FOR ACTUAL COSTS (see page for the list of additional documents ).

© Holy State University - Worldwide Autonomous Religious Educational Entity, 1986-2025. All rights reserved.

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