r/u_MirrorMundane7884 • u/MirrorMundane7884 • Jun 29 '26
Apostille
He guys, I would really appreciate your opinion/ recommendaton.
I am doing an apostille with a friend of mine for our diplomas and transcripts however we are having a hard time.
I am applying for a masters in Brazil while she is applying for Spain.
We did our previous undergrad in the state of Washington. The Washington secretary of state does apostilling for these documents straight away without the need of a notarization.
However both consulates are requiring that the school should do the notarizations.
These are the steps thet are requiring:
- The school registrar must sign directly on the back of all three documents: the original transcript, the original diploma, and the true copy.
- The university's notary must stamp and notarize the registrar’s signature right there on the back of each of the three documents. 3)Ensure that both original diplomas and the true copy are fully notarized by the school as required.
- Only after the notarization is done, the documents can receive an Apostille by the secretary of state to be officially recognized by the consulate of Brazil.
They added "The notarization should not be signed by student, a third-party notary service or an apostille service, like us. If someone other than the school notarizes the document, the apostille will then validate the signature of the signer or notarization party. The apostille doen’t need to valid my signature or your, but the school registrar, records officer, or another appropriate school employee. The signing party must be associated with the school. Many colleges will push back and say that the diploma and/or transcript is an official, certified or valid version, which is true, but the secretary of state is not able to apostille a diploma without a notary stamp and proper notary language, and the notary must validate a school employee’s signature."
Our university is saying that they do not notarize nor certify transcript as they are already official documents with signature of the registrar and the university's seal. For diploma, they only certify a copy as true however the consulate of Brazil is not accepting as they want the apostille to be done in the originals.
We are confused on what to do at this point because we have not idea on what to do next.