Korvia has received questions lately from applicants and recruits as to which Department of State apostille address is correct for sending their FBI Identity History Summary Check (formerly Criminal Background Check) to. The Department of State recently separated walk-in apostillization and mail-in apostillization into different offices and addresses; actually two different states as well.
Mail-In Apostille
If you are sending your FBI IHSC by mail, the correct address to send it to is the Department of State Authentications Office in Virginia. The address is:
Office of Authentications
U.S. Department of State
CA/PPT/S/TO/AUT
44132 Mercure CIR PO BOX 1206 Sterling, VA 20166 1206
The DOS also recently made this note for anyone sending authentication requests to them:
“Note: Effective October 6, 2014, all express mail air bill labels sent to the Office of Authentications for the use of returning documents must reflect the customer’s mailing address as both the sender and recipient.”
Walk-In Apostille
If you live near the Washington DC area, you have the option of “walking-in” or physically visiting the office to obtain an apostille in a much quicker timeframe. You can either do a walk-in or make an appointment. The address for this office is:
Office of Authentications
U.S. Department of State
600 19th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
Please note that these offices are used for explicitly for apostilling your FBI Identity History Summary Check. As of 2014, EPIK requires that ALL IHSCs be apostilled by the Department of State Authentications Office.
For more information about the Department of State Authentications Office please visit it’s official website.
Featured image courtesy of the United States Diplomacy Center
Hi, does the criminal background need to be notarized or authorized before sending it in to be apostilled? I did not see a separate seal on mine, but it has the FBI logo in the background on the middle of the page. It also has the signature. Would that suffice?
Hi Chloe,
FBI criminal background checks are federal documents and therefore can only receive a federal apostille from the US Department of State. FBI Criminal background checks are already notarized, therefore obtaining an additional notarization before an apostille is not needed.
Please read this article for more information “Official Korvia Guide for Apostile” (https://www.korvia.com/apostille-korvia-guide/)
Thank you.
Regards,
Can I have my parents in America go to the Dept. of State to have both of my Federal Background Check document and my college diploma apostilled or do I need to be there myself? And what are the documents needed? My original college diploma and my federal background check application and 2 sets of fingerprints? Is this all or am I forgetting anything? Thank you.
We believe your parents can obtain apostile for you.
If we get the FBI check sent online, can we print it and send it to the apostille? Or must it be an ink-print version?
Hi Jessica,
You can get an apostille with PDF result of FBI background check. Please take a look at this article.
https://www.korvia.com/apostilled-fbi-background-check-korea/
Do you know what needs to be sent with your FBI IHSC? Is there a fee? Return envelope, etc.?