If your inbox just sprouted a request to apostille a power of attorney or a birth certificate, you are not alone. Around here the job usually lands on the person who can slip out before lunch, find parking near Spring Street, and get back before the 2 p.m. check-in with the client. This is exactly how to do it in Los Angeles without spinning your wheels.
The direct route is the California Secretary of State’s Los Angeles counter inside the Ronald Reagan State Building at 300 South Spring Street in the Historic Core. It is walk-in, first-come first-served, no appointments, and it offers same-day apostille service for California documents. Office hours are Monday–Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed on state holidays). As of today, services are being provided on the 1st floor, suite 1215 because of an elevator outage; the permanent mailing room number on record is 12513. You take a number in the lobby and may be asked to wait upstairs until they call you. Cash is not accepted at this location; payment is by Visa/Mastercard, or a check or money order payable to the Secretary of State.
The same-day counter in Los Angeles handles two things: apostilles and domestic partnership filings. Everything else routes to Sacramento or to your county. If you cannot go in person, you can mail apostille requests only to the Secretary of State in Sacramento. Mailing addresses are published as a P.O. Box for USPS and a street address at 1500 11th Street, Sacramento for couriers like UPS and FedEx. Mailed requests are processed in the order received and there is no pull-forward option; if you need fast turnaround without leaving the city, you use either the Los Angeles counter or a courier who walks your packet in for you.
One more local door: from time to time, the Secretary of State runs one-day Apostille Pop-Up Shops around Southern California, often in coordination with county offices. They operate like the same-day counter, with the same fees. If one appears in driving range of Los Angeles on a week you are booking travel documents, it can save you the downtown parking dance.
Plan the paperwork before you grab your keys. California apostilles are issued on original notarized or certified documents that were executed in California and signed by a California public official or notary. Photocopies are not accepted. You also need a short cover sheet that lists the destination country; there is a Los Angeles-specific apostille request form at the counter if you did not preprint one.
Fees are straightforward. The apostille itself is $20 per document. In addition, every in-person submission in Los Angeles carries a $6 special handling fee for each different official’s signature the State authenticates. If your packet includes three notarized affidavits signed by the same notary, the special handling adds once; if it includes a notarized affidavit and a certified birth record signed by a county registrar, that is two different officials and you will see the $6 assessed twice. At the Los Angeles counter you can pay by card, check, or money order. No cash is taken in L.A.; Sacramento does take cash at its counter, which matters when you are budgeting a same-day run there.
If your document first needs a notary, keep the California statutory notarial fee in mind: it is capped at $15 per signature under state law. Mobile notaries can charge a separate travel fee, which is not regulated, but the notarization itself cannot exceed the $15-per-signature maximum.
Expect to budget for downtown logistics. There is no parking inside the state building for public visitors. Most of us use Spring Street garages within two to four blocks, or an early-bird rate at a nearby lot if we are stacking errands in the Historic Core or on Bunker Hill. If you are handing multiple packets, pull a number first so your wait time is running while you sort receipts in the hallway.
If you do not want to gamble on same-day parking and lunch-hour lines, or you are moving a dozen files at once, your choice of route matters. Here is how the main options in Los Angeles stack up.
| Option | Where you go | Government fees | Payment at counter | Turnaround | Notes |
| In person, Los Angeles SOS counter | 300 S Spring St, 1st floor suite 1215 (temporary), weekdays 8–5 | $20 per document + $6 special handling per different official’s signature | Visa/Mastercard, check, money order; no cash | Same day | Take-a-number system; you may be asked to wait on the second floor until called. |
| By mail to Sacramento | Sacramento Notary Public Section (P.O. Box for USPS; 1500 11th St for couriers) | $20 per document | Check or money order | Varies by volume | No in-person pull; include a pre-paid return label if you want tracking. |
| Secretary of State Pop-Up Shop | Single-day events scheduled periodically in SoCal | $20 per document + $6 special handling | Same as counters | Same day | Useful when scheduled closer to your side of the county. |
| Private L.A. courier walks it in | They pick up at your office/home and file at 300 S Spring St | Government fees pass through | Courier invoices you separately | Often same day | Good when you cannot leave your site or you are batching multiple documents. |
Two details that save rework. First, the destination country on your cover sheet must be accurate, because the State issues an apostille only for countries in the Hague Convention and a different authentication for others. Second, the Secretary of State only apostilles California documents. If your client hands you a Nevada corporate resolution or a New York birth record, you cannot fix that in Los Angeles; those go back to the state that issued them. Federal documents like FBI background checks route to the U.S. Department of State in Virginia with a separate fee schedule; they are not handled at Spring Street.
Plenty of Los Angeles apostille runs fail because the underlying record is wrong for international use. Here is how to keep them moving.
An apostille authenticates a California official’s signature. If your document was notarized by a California notary or certified by a California public office, the Secretary of State can verify that signature directly. You do not need Los Angeles County to “pre-authenticate” a California notary for the apostille to work. That said, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk does offer a separate Notary Authentication service that confirms a notary’s commission in Los Angeles County for domestic uses. The fee is $9 per notary signature and visits are by appointment, which you can book up to three weeks ahead. This is a different animal from an apostille and is rarely required for foreign filings, but it is handy if a bank in-state is second-guessing a notarization.
Foreign consulates and ministries routinely reject “hospital” or scanned certificates. For vital records, plan to use a recent certified copy issued by the proper authority. In Los Angeles County, an authorized certified birth record copy costs $34 when ordered through the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. If you pay by debit or credit during an in-person transaction there is a small service fee added to card payments. If the birth is in the current or immediately prior calendar year, you can often get it from the County Department of Public Health; older years come from the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. If your document needs notarization first, book a notary and have them use California-compliant certificates; the notary fee caps at $15 per signature plus any mutually agreed travel charge.
Translation is its own step. You do not apostille a translation; you apostille the sworn translator’s signature notarized in California. In practice that means the translator signs a translator’s declaration before a California notary, then you apostille that notarized declaration. Build a day for translation review if a consulate requires a specific format.
Sometimes you just need a runner who will show up, pull a number at 8:00 a.m., pay the State fees at the window, and be back in West L.A. before your client’s flight. Several local apostille couriers publish their base pricing, which makes approvals easier on short notice:
My Mobile Notary LA lists a published apostille handling fee of $95 per document. That is for the service itself and does not include the State’s $20 apostille fee or any Los Angeles special handling charges you reimburse at cost. Mobile notary and additional document pricing are itemized separately on their rate page.
Tiffany Paris Mobile Notary, serving the Westside and South Bay, posts $130 per document for apostille processing plus a $50 visit fee for the pickup. If you are sending someone to Santa Monica or El Segundo anyway, the clear split between the service fee and the mobile visit fee makes it easy to match to a client’s purchase order.
Sign with Aram Mobile Notary, covering Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, Pasadena, Burbank, and nearby neighborhoods, publishes $195 per document for apostille handling. Their posted price specifically includes the roundtrip to the Secretary of State’s Los Angeles counter, parking, the State’s apostille and special handling fees, wait time, and the return handoff. That bundling reduces back-and-forth on reimbursements when your accounting team wants a wrapped total.
Those examples are not endorsements. They are simply providers operating in Los Angeles who publish the numbers you need to move a request through procurement quickly. If you use any courier, ask three questions up front: whether they will front the State fees or want a check to the Secretary of State from you, what their cutoff time is for same-day filing, and whether international return shipping is included or billed to your account. For a small packet, a downtown rideshare plus the counter line may still beat any service fee. For a stack of diplomas headed to different countries, a courier who knows Spring Street’s routine can be worth their invoice.
Yes. The Secretary of State’s Los Angeles office at 300 S Spring St offers walk-in, first-come first-served same-day apostille service on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You take a number on arrival and pay the State fees when they process your packet. Plan for downtown parking and bring a card, check, or money order; cash is not accepted at the L.A. counter.
The apostille itself is $20 per document. Because you are filing in person, there is also a $6 special handling fee for each different official’s signature that the State authenticates. A notarized affidavit and a certified county record would count as two different officials and add the $6 twice. Notary fees you paid beforehand, and any courier or parking costs, are separate from the State’s charges.
No. For California documents, the Secretary of State can authenticate a California notary’s signature directly. The County’s Notary Authentication service exists and is $9 per signature by appointment, but it is typically used for domestic purposes, not as a prerequisite for an apostille at the State counter.
Each document must be apostilled by the government that issued it. Out‑of‑state records go back to that state’s apostille authority. FBI background checks and other federal documents go to the U.S. Department of State for apostille, with a separate $20 per document federal fee and their own processing timeline.
When you are choosing a route in Los Angeles, start with the time you actually have. If the signer is on a plane tonight, the Spring Street counter or a local courier who walks it in will meet the deadline. If you have a week and a prepaid label, mailing to Sacramento clears your calendar and your desk.
Published: September 10, 2026 · Reviewed by the This Los Angeles editorial team