How to apostille a Florida Certificate of Status

What exactly does a Certificate of Status prove?

The Florida Certificate of Status certifies that the entity is listed as active in the Florida Division of Corporations' records and has paid the fees owed to that office through the date indicated. It does not certify financial solvency, general tax compliance, beneficial ownership, or any specific person's signing authority.

Certificate of Status, certified copy, and a Sunbiz printout are three different things

A Certificate of Status proves current status. A certified copy, by contrast, officially reproduces a document already on file with the registry, such as the original Articles of Incorporation or Articles of Organization. A plain printout from the public Sunbiz search, Florida's free lookup portal, is useful for checking basic information, but it does not substitute for an official Certificate of Status or a certified copy, and should not be presented as an apostille-eligible document.

Step 1: confirm exactly what the destination requires

• Whether they want a Certificate of Status, certified Articles, or both.
• The maximum age they'll accept (many authorities require less than three or six months).
• Whether an apostille or consular legalization applies, depending on the country.
• Whether certified translation is required and in what physical or electronic format the document must be delivered.

Confirming this checklist before ordering anything avoids having to repeat the entire process because of an expired certificate or the wrong document.

Step 2: check the company's status on Sunbiz before ordering the certificate

Before requesting the certificate, confirm the entity is listed as active on Sunbiz and that any pending annual report or reinstatement has been processed. If the entity appears inactive, administratively dissolved, or revoked, resolve that first before requesting a certificate meant to show good registered standing.

Step 3: order the official record from the state, not a printout

Florida allows ordering the Certificate of Status electronically, and it's emailed as a PDF after payment, but for an apostille it must follow the format accepted by the Apostille Section of the Florida Department of State. One especially safe option is requesting the Certificate of Status and the apostille together through the Division of Corporations, using separate requests and payments as required.

Step 4: request the Florida apostille

The apostille request typically includes the Apostille Request Form, the original document eligible for apostille, payment, and, if mailed, a prepaid return envelope or air bill. When the certificate and apostille are requested together, Florida requires separate payments (separate checks or money orders) for the certificate fee and for the apostille fee.

Apostille or consular legalization?

If the Hague Apostille Convention is in force between the United States and the destination country, international authentication is normally completed through an apostille, without the additional consular legalization required for countries outside the Convention. If the destination country is not a party to the Convention, a multi-step authentication and consular-legalization chain may apply instead. Not every Latin American country should be treated the same way; confirm the specific country's status before starting the process.

Florida Certificates of Status and apostilles are requested directly through the Florida Department of State. We can help confirm exactly which document your foreign counterpart needs and coordinate the full process.

Common mistakes

• Submitting a Sunbiz printout as though it were the official certificate.
• Confusing proof of status (Certificate of Status) with a certified copy of the Articles.
• Submitting a photocopy of the certificate for apostille.
• Ordering the certificate while the company's annual report is still pending.
• Assuming the apostille confirms financial solvency or the content of the corporate file.

Delaware and other states: same concept, different name

Although this guide focuses on Florida, the same concept exists in every state under different names: Delaware, New York, and California, among others, typically use the term Certificate of Good Standing rather than Certificate of Status. If the company is incorporated outside Florida, the Certificate of Good Standing or Certificate of Status must be requested from the state that maintains that entity's registry, and follows that same state's apostille process, even if the company operates primarily out of Florida. Other corporate documents, such as powers of attorney or resolutions, may follow a different route based on where they were notarized.

Timing and planning

Processing times for both the certificate and the apostille vary with the state office's workload at any given time, so it's best not to assume a fixed turnaround. Florida publishes updated processing dates for certification requests and apostille requests, and these can run on different schedules; check those dates before promising a delivery timeline to a foreign counterparty. When the document is needed by a specific deadline abroad, such as closing a bank relationship or a regulatory filing, it's preferable to start the process weeks ahead and confirm current processing times directly with the Florida Department of State before committing to that date.

Ordering extra certified copies for parallel processes

If your company needs to submit the same type of document to several foreign authorities at once, say a bank and a commercial registry in different countries, it can be more efficient to order several certified copies or several Certificates of Status in the same request than to process each one separately at different times, especially when they share a similar maximum-age requirement. Confirm with each authority whether it accepts identical apostilled copies or requires a separate original for each process.

What to check when the apostilled document arrives

Before sending the document to the foreign counterpart, verify that the entity name on the certificate matches exactly what appears on the other documents in the file, that the apostille is physically attached to the document without alteration, and that the certificate's issue date, not just the apostille date, falls within the maximum age the receiving authority requires.

If the apostille is damaged or lost

If the apostille becomes detached, lost, or damaged in a way that compromises the integrity of the set, check before submitting it. In many cases a new document and a new apostille may be needed, especially if the receiving party can't verify both belong to the same set. Keeping the apostilled document in good condition, without extra staples or holes, avoids having to repeat the process over avoidable damage.