Apostille of the Hague...What?

Ok.

*Deep Breath*

Getting the Apostille certification is a pain in the $#@.

First things first. What the heck is an Apostille of the Hague???
-An "apostille" is a form of authentication issued to documents for use in countries that participate in the Hague Convention of 1961.

That clears it all up, right? Riiiiight. *How* to get an apostille certification is about as clear as what it is.

Last time I went to Spain all I had to do was go to the Washington State Patrol website, pay $10 and print out my background check. This time the Spanish consulate didn’t accept that. They told me that I needed to talk to my local police station and they would give me something more official.

I went to the police station in Snohomish and they told me that I needed to go to the station in Everett. I went to the police station in Everett, paid another $10 and they gave me a more official looking background check.

I went home and tried to do more research on the Apostille certification. I found one official site that said I was going to have to pay about $300 and mail it to New York or something crazy like that. Panic set in a little. $300??? Really??? They wouldn’t really make the language assistants pay that much for a background check, right? No. They wouldn’t. I ended up finding the office in Washington that could do these certifications. I overnight mailed the background check to the Apostille office, with a cover letter and $15 for the certification. I received a call from the Apostille office the next day saying they had received everything I sent, but before they could process the Apostille certification I needed to re-contact the state patrol and get the background check notarized.

Uhhhhhh. Ok. So I contact the state patrol and they have me fax over a cover letter explaining the situation and a bank authorization form to charge another $5 for the notarization.

The next day I hear from them again. They got everything I faxed, but also need me to fax the original background check that the Spanish consulate didn’t accept. Back to FedEx I go to fax that over.

A day or two later I get an e-mail stating the notarization had been sent over to the Apostille office.

A day or two after THAT I contact to Apostille to make sure they have everything.

I contact them a couple days after that to see if everything was almost finished and they said it was supposed to go out in the evening mail, but the evening mail never came so it would go out in the morning.

Finally, I receive the background check with the notarization and Apostille certification. It doesn’t get much more official than certified by the Secretary of State! I took it to the post office and express mailed it to the consulate, but they said the earliest they could get it there was by Saturday the 9th. Blah. That means that the consulate can’t get my visa in the mail by the 8th. Even if they receive it the 9th, they won’t be able to finish processing and mailing my visa that day. Then Sunday they aren’t in the office and there isn’t any mail. Monday is Columbus Day, so once again there’s no mail service. *Hopefully* it will go out Tuesday and I’ll have my visa by Thursday. Goal: Fly out Saturday the 16th.

For anyone in Washington that needs to get this Apostille certification, here is the website that finally helped me:
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/apostilles/Default.aspx