A power of attorney (POA) lets someone act on your behalf — to sell property, manage a bank account, or sign documents in another country. For a foreign authority to accept it, the POA almost always needs to be notarized and then apostilled.
The correct order of steps
- Prepare the POA in the form the destination country expects (some consulates have specific wording or language requirements).
- Notarize it. Because a POA is signed by you, a notary must witness the signature first.
- Apostille it. The apostille authenticates the notary’s commission — issued by the state where the document was notarized.
- Translate it, if required by the destination country, with a certified translation.
Common mistake: Signing the POA before seeing the notary. Most notarizations require you to sign in the notary’s presence — sign too early and it may have to be redone.
Non-Hague destinations
If the POA is going to a country outside the Hague Convention, it needs full embassy legalization instead of a single apostille. We manage the entire chain, including the consulate step.
We do it all in one place
From notarization (in-person or mobile) to apostille and certified translation, Orange County Apostille handles every step of a POA for overseas use. We work with clients in every state — mail your document in or start online.
Ready to get started?
Start online from anywhere in the U.S. — any document, any destination country.
Learn more: Do I need to notarize first? · Nationwide apostille services