[palani]

Originally Posted by David Merrill

But understand that an apostille from the Secretary of State is nothing more than assurance that the notary is a current notary and followed proper notary procedure according to state law.

The apostille makes the document valid in other countries for the pitance paid of $5 per country. It does this under the auspices of the Hague Convention of 1963. I suppose if one were to travel through 20 or more countries in one trip the cost would add up quickly. In addition there would most undoubtably be the necessity of clearing your travel documents with the countries visited ahead of time and applying for visa's.

As to what constitutes a public document and to rebut Bernie, here is what the UN says

The Convention applies to public documents which have been executed in the territory of one contracting state and which have to be produced in the territory of another contracting state. For the purposes of the Convention, the following are deemed to be public documents:

a) documents emanating from an authority or an official connected with the courts or tribunals of the State, including those emanating from a public prosecutor, a clerk of a court or a process-server (``huissier de justice''),
b) administrative documents,
c) notarial acts,
d) official certifications 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.

I would guess that, if an apostille can be produced for a document, that would be pretty good evidence in itself that the document is a public document. I don't think the State Department of a state would lie about something as serious as this.

And here is what the UN says about the apostille itself

Prerequisites of such certificate (``Apostille'') are explicitly stipulated by the Convention. It may be drawn up in the official language of the authority which issues it. The pre-print of the certificate may be in a second language as well. The title ``Apostille (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)'' must be in the French language.

When the certificate is properly filled in, it will certify the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which the person signing the document has acted and, where appropriate, the identity of the seal or stamp which the document bears.

Since the notary is a public officer (most probably under the executive branch) I generally place the term "FOREIGN AGENT" under the signature line for the notary. This sometimes causes them to blink rapidly before executing but they never seem to want to refuse.