State of Alaska

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General Information

Other countries often require that official signatures and notarizations on your documents be corroborated by the Secretary of State before they will accept them. In Alaska this job is one of the many traditional Secretary of State roles that is handled by our Lieutenant Governor (Alaska has no Secretary of State).

The documents must be notarized by a commissioned Alaskan notary or must be the original document that is produced by an Alaskan official.

There are two different certificates used, the Apostille and the Certificate of Authority. Apostilles are required by member countries of the Hague Conference on Legalization, although some non-member countries also accept the Apostille.

Document Requirements

The documents must have original signatures and must be properly notarized by a commissioned Alaska Notary Public, or they must be official certified copies of Alaska Vital Records, Court or other official state documents.

1. Original signatures.

The Lieutenant Governor authenticates the signatures of the officials that have notarized or certified your documents. The official signatures on your documents must be originals or if official state documents, must be the same document issued to you by the state. Photocopies of signatures are not acceptable for authentication. If you need more than one copy of the same document authenticated it will be necessary to create duplicate originals and have each copy notarized separately. If you need more than one authenticated copy of an official state issued document it will be necessary for you to obtain as many officially certified copies as you will need. 2. The Notarizations must meet statutory requirements.

Unless you are sending official certified copies of Vital Statistic, Court or other official State issued documents, your documents must be notarized. Please screen the notarizations to make sure they are complete and comply with statutory requirements. A properly notarized document in Alaska has:

The Principal's signature on a statement or on a document that otherwise obligates the Principal in some manner (the Principal is the person whose signature is notarized.)

A notarial certificate. A sample notarial certificate can be viewed below.
The notary's signature.
The expiration date of the notary's commission.
An imprint of the notary's seal that is reproducible if photocopied or faxed. Embossed seals must be shaded over with pencil or ink to comply with Alaska law.
Notarized documents must contain all of these elements. Improperly notarized documents cannot be authenticated. You will have to return them to the notary for correction before you present them for authentication. The notarial certificate is wording that states the details of the notarization. It usually appears on the document following the Principal's signature although it can be on a separate piece of paper attached to the document. No specific wording is required by Alaska law, but the law requires a notarial certificate on all notarizations. The following sample is provided to help you figure out if your document contains a notarial certificate.

Sample Notarial Certificate

The notarial certificate is the necessary skeleton of the notarization. It ties the other elements together and provides details about the notarial act being performed. Even if the notary signs and has affixed their seal the notarial act does not comply with statutory requirements if the notarial certificate is missing. 3. Commissioned Notaries Public vs. Noncommissioned notaries.

Alaska statutes grant U.S. Postmasters, commissioned Military Officers, Alaskan Justices, Judges, Magistrates and Clerks of Court the power to perform notarial acts as noncommissioned notaries. The Lieutenant Governor does not keep signature files for noncommissioned notaries, so their notarizations usually can't be authenticated. We can collect Court employee signatures in many situations, but we do not automatically maintain signature files for them. Collecting these signatures can take quite a bit of time and in many instances may not be possible at all.

The majority of notaries in Alaska are commissioned by the Lieutenant Governor. If at all possible you should try to have your documents notarized by a commissioned notary. The easiest way to locate a commissioned notary is to visit your bank. If you are having trouble locating a notary public, contact the Notary Administrator for help. If you want to make sure that your document has been notarized by a commissioned notary before you send it or check to see if we happen to have a particular court employee's signature on file please review the section on document screening.

4. Official certified copies of Alaska Vital Records (Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates, etc.)

The Lt. Governor authenticates official certified copies of Vital Records

It is against the law to make photocopies of your Alaska Vital Statistics documents (AS 18.50.320 (5)). The Lieutenant Governor will not be able to authenticate photocopies of Vital Statistic documents even if they have been properly notarized via the Copy Certification by Document Custodian process.

5. Official certified copies of Alaska Court documents.

The Lt. Governor will authenticate official certified copies of Court documents and documents that have been properly notarized by Court officials provided that we have their signatures on file (see "Other official state documents" below for details.) The Alaska Court System maintains an online directory at http://www.state.ak.us/courts/courtdir.htm, if you need contact information for ordering records. 6. Other official state documents.

The Lt. Governor collects signatures for various state officials for authentication purposes on an as-needed basis. If any signature is not already on file it will be necessary for us to collect it before we can process your order. Collection of signatures for this purpose requires the cooperation of the officials who signed your document. Although the officials contacted to date have been willing to help it is possible that we may eventually run into an official who refuses to cooperate. Also, we can only collect signatures from individuals who are currently employed. If we are unable to collect the signature -or if your copies are old and the official who signed it no longer works for the state - you will need to obtain new copies with signatures that we can work with or you will have to obtain notarized copies of the document. Getting what you need in this situation can be tricky. Please don't hesitate to contact the Notary Administrator for assistance if you are having trouble.

Copy Certification By Document Custodian

Alaska's notaries do not have the authority to certify documents or photocopies of documents. When it is necessary to authenticate a photocopy of a document or a document has not been notarized at the time of issue it may be possible to use a process called Copy Certification By Document Custodian. Anybody except an individual functioning in the capacity of Notary Public can certify a document using this process. The person that is certifying the document signs a statement and their signature on that statement is notarized.

A properly executed Copy Certification By Document Custodian will meet the Lt. Governor's requirements for obtaining an Apostille or Certificate of Authority, but the finished product may not meet the requirements of the government to which you will be submitting your documents. P

It is against the law to make copies of your Alaska Vital Statistics documents (AS 18.50.320 (5)). The Lieutenant Governor will not be able to authenticate photocopies of Vital Statistic documents even if they have been properly notarized via the Copy Certification by Document Custodian process.

School transcripts and diplomas.

If you work with the registrar of your school in advance, they may be able to incorporate a notarial certificate into their normal copy certification process and provide you with a notarized original. These notarized originals are always preferable since it is the real document custodian's signature that is being notarized. Not all registrars will be familiar with this process so it may be necessary to have them read these instructions or see if they would be willing to contact the Notary Administrator to discuss your special needs.

We provide authentication ( legalization) services to corporations, law firms, U.S. citizens and foreign nationals on all documents that will be used in foreign countries..
	obtain Apostilles for documents intended for use in the Hague Convention countries (See HLC-Countries).
	obtain foreign certification (State, Federal and Embassy levels) for non Hague Convention countries (See non-HLC-Countries).
	Embassy (Consulate) legalization.

To complete the order, please complete and submit our Online Application Form Online Application Form

Apostille Certificat

The Apostille Convention facilitates the circulation of public documents executed in one State party to the Convention and to be produced in another State party to the Convention. It does so by replacing the cumbersome and often costly formalities of a full legalization process with the issuance of an Apostille Certificate. (www.hcch.net)

The Convention only applies to public documents. These are documents emanating from an authority or official connected with a court or tribunal of the State (including documents issued by an administrative, constitutional or ecclesiastical court or tribunal, a public prosecutor, a clerk or a process server); administrative documents; notarial acts; and official certificates which are placed on documents signed by persons in their private capacity, such as official certificates recording the registration of a document or the fact that it was in existence on a certain date and official and notarial authentications of signatures. The main examples of public documents for which Apostilles are issued in practice include: birth, marriage and death certificates; extracts from commercial registers and other registers; patents; court rulings; notarial acts and notarial attestations of signatures; academic diplomas issued by public institutions; etc. Apostilles may also be issued for a certified copy of a public document. On the other hand, the Convention neither applies to documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents nor to administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations (e.g., certificates of origin or import or export licenses). (www.hcch.net)

Once an Apostille is obtain, the document may be delivered directly to the country of intended use and bypass further certification from the US Department of State.

The Hague Legalization Convention is in force in the following countries.

"Embassy (Consular) Legalization"
"Chain Authentication"

The following countries are not a party to the Convention and need "Embassy (Consular) Legalization" ( "Chain Authentication").