Apostille is commonly used to refer to the legalization of a document for international use under the Hague Convention of 1961 for Foreign Public Documents. The Office of the Secretary of State provides apostille and authentication service to U.S. citizens and foreign nationals on documents that will be used overseas. Types of documents include corporate documents such as company bylaws and articles of incorporation, power of attorney, diplomas, transcripts, letters relating to degrees, marital status, references and job certifications, home studies, deeds of assignments, distributorship agreements, papers for adoption purposes, etc.

The U.S. State Department provides general information about document authentications and apostilles.