“SOS” stands for the Secretary of State (state-level) in 50 states, and “DOS” stands for the U.S. Department of State.

Government fees and charges are included in the service fee, except for some embassies/consulates that charge expensive embassy fees.

The fee schedule does not include shipping fees which may vary by the location and delivery services you choose.

For documents seeking legalization from the embassies of these countries, additional expensive embassy fees may apply to you, varying from $50 to $600, which is charged by the embassy.

Business days are generally considered to be Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time and exclude weekends and public holidays. Processing time starts the day we receive your documents and excludes shipping time after we mail them out. Please note that 🕒 the current processing times (# of business days) is a good faith estimate and may change depending on the resources available at the Secretary of State’s offices in 50 states, the U.S. Department of State offices, and Embassy offices, the volume of work received at our offices, and force majeure.

Please expect delays during the last three weeks of December and the first week of January (Holiday Season), and the summer season.

Please be sure that your documents have been notarized by the notary public in the state where the documents are from. In addition to the notary’s stamp and signature, the notary must also include proper notarial wording. If the notary makes a mistake, your documents will be rejected, and you will have to start over costing you time and money.

Extra time is needed for notarized documents signed by notaries from Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, and Tennessee. Why?

At present, Traditional Notarization (face-to-face) is only available in the DMV area (DC/Virginia/Maryland). An appointment is needed by emailing us at info@usnotarycenter.com or using the Contact Form.