The most requested apostille in Broward County — for dual citizenship, foreign marriage, and visa applications. $250 per certificate, 5 business days. Serving Hollywood from our Fort Lauderdale office, by appointment.
In Hollywood — home to about 153,000 residents — the need for a birth certificate apostille usually arrives with a deadline attached: a consulate appointment, a visa window, a foreign closing date. The birth certificate is the single most common document we apostille. Dual citizenship applications, foreign marriages, international work visas, school enrollment abroad — nearly every international process that involves proving who you are starts with an apostilled U.S. birth certificate.
For Florida-born residents, the path runs through the Florida Department of State — but only certified copies issued by the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics (or a county health department vital records office) qualify. Hospital keepsake certificates, photocopies, and laminated copies are rejected on sight. We review every certificate before filing, walk it into the Department of State in person, and have the apostilled original back in your hands in 5 business days. For Hollywood residents, that means one handoff — at your door or at our office — and the apostilled original back in your hands on a defined timeline.
Foreign school enrollment, dual-national passport applications, and family reunification petitions all require the child's apostilled U.S. birth certificate.
By far the most common use. Italian consulates require an apostilled birth certificate for the applicant and every ancestor in the direct line of descent.
Spain's and Portugal's citizenship programs — including routes for descendants of Sephardic Jews and Latin American nationals — require apostilled U.S. birth records.
Marrying abroad? Most foreign civil registries require an apostilled birth certificate before they'll issue a marriage license to a U.S. citizen.
Hollywood is home to roughly 153,000 residents. Hollywood's large Cuban, Colombian, and Romanian communities keep a constant flow of documents moving between South Florida and consulates abroad — birth certificates for citizenship claims, powers of attorney for property overseas, and marriage records for foreign spouses.
We serve clients throughout Hollywood's neighborhoods including Hollywood Beach, Hollywood Hills, Emerald Hills, Hollywood Lakes, and Downtown Hollywood, as well as nearby communities such as Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach, Pembroke Pines, and West Park. Landmarks like the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk, ArtsPark at Young Circle, and Memorial Regional Hospital put us on familiar ground — this is home-turf service, not a mail-order processor.
From Hollywood, our Fort Lauderdale office is about 25 minutes away — visits by appointment — and appointments are usually available same day or next day. Also serving birth certificate apostille clients in nearby Pembroke Pines, and Hallandale Beach.
The rules are specific, and they are where Hollywood filings most often go wrong: The Florida Department of State will only apostille a certified copy of a birth certificate — one issued by the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics in Jacksonville or by a county health department vital records office, bearing a raised or printed registrar's seal and an issuing signature. The commemorative certificate from the hospital, however official it looks, cannot be apostilled.
Born in Broward County but don't have a certified copy? You can order one from the Florida Department of Health in Broward County's vital records office or online through the state Bureau of Vital Statistics. Born in another state? Your birth certificate must be apostilled by that state's Secretary of State — we can point you to the right office. Born abroad? A Consular Report of Birth Abroad is a federal document requiring U.S. Department of State authentication instead. When your birth certificate is ready, bring it to our office — about 20 minutes from Hollywood — appointments usually available same day or next day.
Book your handoff: a scheduled appointment at the office, usually available same day or next day. Times are confirmed within the hour.
We review each document against the state’s checklist — certified copy, valid notarization, correct destination country — before it ever travels.
Filing happens face to face at the Florida Department of State, not by envelope. That is what keeps the timeline fixed at five business days.
When the apostilled originals come back, we call. Pick them up at the office or we return them to you locally — whichever is easier.
No hourly rates, no hidden charges, no surprise add-ons. The price you see is the price you pay — including the Florida Department of State filing fee.
All prices include the Florida Department of State filing fee ($10 per document), in-person filing at the Department of State, and full document handling. Notarization available as a separate service when your documents require it.
Download the Florida Department of State Apostille and Notarial Certificate Request Form. We can fill it out for you at your appointment — no need to complete it in advance.
Because Hollywood is a city where Cuban, Colombian, and Eastern European families keep vital records moving between South Florida and consulates abroad, the birth certificates we apostille here are most often bound for Cuba, Colombia, Romania, and Israel. That matters practically: each destination has its own quirks — whether a certified translation is required, whether the receiving registry wants a recently issued copy, and whether the apostille needs to be translated along with the document.
We handle those details as part of the job rather than leaving you to discover them at a consulate window. Tell us the destination country when you call and we’ll confirm exactly what your birth certificate needs before anything is filed — including whether a translation should be ordered before or after the apostille, which is the sequencing mistake that costs Hollywood clients the most time.
Yes — we serve every city in Broward County, Hollywood included. Service is by appointment at our Fort Lauderdale office at 6750 N Andrews Ave, Ste 288E; requests before 2 PM are routinely scheduled the same day, and every request gets a confirmed time within one business hour.
We're at 6750 N Andrews Ave, Ste 288E in Fort Lauderdale — about 25 minutes from Hollywood. Office visits are by appointment, and same-day slots are usually available.
5 business days, drop-off to return — the same in-person filing timeline countywide. Rush handling is available when your deadline is tighter; call us and we'll tell you honestly what's achievable.
The apostille itself is a standardized multilingual form, but many countries require a certified translation of the birth certificate for local use. We coordinate certified translations regularly — ask when you book.
Yes — the process is identical, and a parent can request it. Children's certificates are among our most common requests for dual-national passports and foreign school enrollment.
Some receiving countries — Italy and Spain among them — expect a recently issued certified copy, often within the last six months to a year. If yours is decades old, we recommend ordering a fresh certified copy before apostilling. We can advise based on your destination country.
If it's a certified copy with the registrar's seal and signature, usually yes — the Department of State authenticates the issuing official's signature. Very old certificates signed by officials no longer on file can occasionally be rejected, in which case a freshly issued certified copy solves it.
A birth certificate must be apostilled by the state that issued it — New York records by New York, New Jersey by New Jersey, and so on. We handle Florida-issued documents; for out-of-state records we can tell you exactly which office to contact.
