Apostille
Apostille in the United States is a separate page which is affixed to the document. It authenticates the document and the signature and authority of the officials who have signed the document. This includes notaries, clerks and other public officials whose signature might appear on the document.
Apostille is a french word that means authentication. It was adopted as the result of the Hague Convention of 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization of Foreign Public Documents. The Articles of the convention posted on the HCCH web-site established that all Apostilles will bear the french spelling of he word and will all include similar features. Such as “The certificate will be in a form of a square with sides at least 9 centimeters long”.
Here’s an example of an Apostille in our State:
On the Image you can see the borders and the square(ish) appearance of the document to comply with the set rules. Also it explains who signed the document and the type of authority the person had to do so.