If you are looking to apostille your birth certificate and were born in New York City, each country will require a different level of authentication. The strictest variation we commonly see is countries like Italy for dual passport applications, where they require an updated original long form birth certificate with exemplification.
What is a long form birth certificate?
The long form birth certificate contains all the information regarding the newborn, like parents’ names (including mother’s maiden), the attending doctor, and exact time of birth. In contrast, a short form birth certificate merely contains vital information and says, “the long form birth certificate is on file”.
What is an exemplification?
The exemplification is just another document, from the Clerk or Department of Vital Statistics, that says “we recognize this birth certificate as being authentic”.
Wait, can’t you just have it exemplified as part of the Apostille process?
Yes, but having us exemplify more than doubles the price of the Apostille because of the time required at Centre Street in New York City. The fastest and easiest way to obtain the long form exemplified birth certificate is to order it here (and have it shipped directly to us):
https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-01012
We do offer options where you can forward a specific power-of-attorney to us granting permission to obtain your birth certificate in NYC if time is absolutely of the essence.
Some of our same day Apostille options allow for obtaining your documents, having the Apostilled and couriered to FedEx all before 6pm.
To start the Apostille process, take 4 minutes to provide us with a bit of information here:
apstilleapply.com
* As a sidenote, Birth Certificates issued in Westchester County are always exemplified as part of the Apostille process. We are at the Westchester County Clerk every day of the week!
If you are in Northern Westchester, we can still have your Apostille processed same day if we have everything by 11am. No other Apostille expediters courier to the Westchester County Clerk and the New York State Department of State 5 days a week.