Timing
Apostille Processing Times, What Actually Determines How Long It Takes
How long does an apostille take is the most reasonable question a client can ask, and the hardest one to answer honestly in a single number.
- Written by
- Janet L. Chantharasy, Commissioned Illinois Notary Public, Illini Notary and Signing Services
- Published
- Last updated
The reason is that the time belongs mostly to authorities other than us. A government authority processes the submission on its own schedule, mail moves at its own pace, and where a document has to be ordered before it can be authenticated, that step comes first and is often the longest part.
What follows is what each authority currently states about its own processing, what those figures do and do not cover, and the factors that genuinely move a timeline.
What Each Authority Currently States
The figures below are each authority's own statement about its own processing, reproduced as stated rather than paraphrased.
Illinois Secretary of State
7 to 14 business days for mail submissions
As currently stated by the Illinois Secretary of State on the Apostilles and Certifications page, checked 10 September 2026
United States Department of State
Within 5 weeks from the day the Department receives a mail request, within 7 business days for drop off and pick up in person, and the same day for an emergency appointment
As currently stated by the United States Department of State on the Request Authentication Services page, checked 10 September 2026
Why the Two Routes Cannot Be Compared
A document issued by the State of Illinois is authenticated by the Illinois Secretary of State. A document issued by the federal government, an FBI Identity History Summary being the common example, is authenticated by the United States Department of State. These are different authorities with different queues, and a document set containing both will not complete on a single timeline.
A document issued by a state other than Illinois goes to that state's own competent authority, which sets its own processing time again. This is why a straightforward sounding request for three documents can turn into three separate clocks.
The Factors That Actually Move a Timeline
- Which authority issued the document, since the state route and the federal route run on entirely separate clocks
- Whether the underlying document already exists, or has to be ordered first
- Whether the destination accepts an apostille or requires embassy legalization
- How many documents are in the set, and whether they all travel by the same route
- Mail transit in both directions, which no authority's stated processing time includes
- Whether a translation is required by the receiving institution
Of these, the one people underestimate most is the first step. If a certified copy, a sealed transcript, or a background check has to be ordered before anything can be authenticated, the ordering time is real time, and it happens before the authority's stated processing even begins.
What We Will and Will Not Tell You
We will tell you which authority your document goes to, what that authority currently states about its own processing, what the ordering step is likely to involve, and what we know about the destination's requirement.
We will not give you a guaranteed completion date, because the processing is performed by government authorities whose schedules we do not control, and a confident number that turns out to be wrong is worse than an honest range. What we do control is that the submission is correct the first time, which is the single largest avoidable source of delay.