Certified & True Copies Articulos

Certified copies edition

7 guides published

Two different acts share one name. Who signs decides which one you needed

FRONT PAGE
WHERE FILES DIE
THE TWO ACTS
WHO SIGNS
THE FILE
ALL GUIDES

The lead

A notarized photocopy and a certified copy are not two names for the same paper

Ask for a «certified copy» and you may be asking for either of two unrelated acts. One is performed by the office that holds the record and signs to say the copy matches its register. The other is performed by a notary, who watches a photocopy being made of a document you own and attaches a statutory certificate to it. Both come back stamped. Only one of them is what the receiving authority asked for, and the file is refused long after you paid for the wrong one.

Notary Services · Certified & True Copies

A specialist holding a clipboard outside an office building

The distinction is not bureaucratic fussiness. An apostille authenticates a signature and the capacity in which its owner signed. Put a notary's signature on a copy of a public record and the apostille will faithfully authenticate the notary — which is not what the foreign registry is waiting for.

Start here

Three routes into the section, by what you are actually holding.

Find out which act you need

The difference explained in full, plus why the apostille cares who signed.

It is a vital record

Birth, marriage, death, divorce: the office that recorded it is the only one that can certify a copy.

It is a passport or a private paper

Here a notary is the right signature — and there are rules about what may be copied.

The rule: the custodian signs, and the apostille checks that signature

Certified copies of vital records nationwide, except New York and New Jersey.

The notarial act

A notary handing an attested copy of a passport across a desk

The attested photocopy, and why it cannot be made from a copy

A state-commissioned notary makes or supervises the copy, then signs a statutory certificate.

Where files die

Two certificate forms laid on a dark blue surface

Nobody holds the original of a vital record — not even you

The original is the entry in the register. Everything else is a copy of it.

Errors of custody

Three ways a correct-looking document is the wrong document

The wrong desk

Taking a vital record to a notary

A notarized photocopy generally does not replace a certified copy issued by the records custodian. The stamp is real; the signer is the wrong one.

A copy of a copy

Handing over something already copied

State law dictates that a notary cannot make an attested copy from a document that is already a copy. The original has to be in the room.

The original

Believing you are holding it

For a vital record there is no original in private hands. Every sheet you can own is a copy of the register entry, and only its signer matters.

The two acts

Same request at the counter, two different signatures

Certified copy

An official duplicate of a public record carrying the signature and seal of the record custodian — a state or county registrar, a clerk of the circuit court, a probate office. Their signature is on file with the state, which is what lets an apostille authority verify it.

Issued, never notarised

Attested photocopy

A copy made or directly supervised by a state-commissioned notary, followed by the statutory certificate that state law prescribes. It is the right instrument for a passport, a diploma or a private contract you physically own.

Notarial, and only from an original

What the apostille checks

Not the content, and not the truth of the document: an apostille authenticates the signature, the capacity in which the signer acted, and the seal. That is the whole reason the choice of signer decides whether the file moves.

The signature, not the paper

The custodian

Public records: the office that recorded it

Certified copies, and why the apostille cares who signed

The custodian rule in full, and the two states left out of the service.

Certifying a birth certificate is not a notarial act

What the phrase actually means in the United States, and what a certified copy must show.

The certified photocopy of a birth certificate

Which version a consulate, a university or a dual-citizenship file expects.

The notary

Private documents: the paper you own

Certified and true copy: what it is

The definitional guide, and the section's most read page by a wide margin.

Copy of passport: securing the attested copy

The one act in this section that a notary can perform, and its limits.

Florida document services, end to end

Where certified copies sit inside the wider Florida chain, from stamp to apostille.

The file

Four things this section settles

Acts, one name

A custodian certifies a public record. A notary attests a photocopy of a private one. Both come back stamped.

Originals in private hands

For a vital record the original is the entry in the register. Every sheet you can hold is a copy of it.

NY · NJ

The two states out

Certified copies of vital records are obtained nationwide except New York and New Jersey.

Signature checked

An apostille verifies the signature and the capacity of whoever signed, not the content of the document.

Notary Public Center

Get the copy the receiving authority will actually accept

Notary Public Center obtains certified copies of vital records from the office that holds them, and performs attested photocopies of the documents you own — online or in person. Tell us the destination first: it decides which of the two you need.

Certified copies of records

Notarize a copy

Elsewhere in Notary Services

The neighbouring sections of this edition

Marriage Records & Licenses

Online & Mobile Notarization

Travel Consent for Minors

Affidavits & Sworn Statements

Document services

All of Notary Services

All guides

The full list of the section, always up to date

Certified & True Copies

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