Topic: State vs. Federal Apostille for FBI Background Checks

Clients of ours always call and ask about state apostilles vs federal apostilles for FBI background checks (also known as an IDHS or Identification History Summery), so I’ll try to explain what works and what doesn’t in a minute or two.

Frist, federal apostilles are 100% the best option, worldwide as they validate the electronic signature on the actual background check, which is signed by Scott Rago, in most cases. FBI background checks should not be notarized when ordering federal apostilles; they are good as is.

In 2020, the federal authentications office had a backlog of up to ten weeks, and as a result, some countries, such as South Korea, parts of Russia and even Portugal and Spain accepted state level apostilles for FBI Background Checks; however, this was not very common in 2021 and I expect it to be even less common this year.

A state apostille is basically a notarized copy of the FBI background check that is apostilled at the state level. Since the apostille really only validates the notary’s commission, not the signature of Scott Rago, it’s really not worth much. Nonetheless, the state apostille can be obtained in 3 to 4 days, whereas the federal apostille takes about 3 to 4 weeks.

We only recommend state apostilles when time is an issue, and no other options exist. Some customers order both, which we never recommend, but are always glad to do.

Summary – if you have federal background check, the federal apostille is always the best option; however, if you only have a week or less, the state apostille would be better than no apostille at all.

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Both can be ordered on https://www.sespanish.com/

Federal Here:
https://www.sespanish.com/product/fed...

State Here:
https://www.sespanish.com/product/sta...