The US Department of State must certify the document in order for the Apostille procedure to be completed, which typically takes 3 to 5 days. State by state, there are different timeline for the Secretary of State to certify documents. The initial steps for documents requiring authentication or embassy legalization include document notarization, secretary of state documentation, and US Department of State authentication, and they typically take 3-5 business days. Depending on the country of use, times can and frequently do vary if the documents need to be legalized by an embassy. For more information, visit https://www.usauthentication.com/us-authentication-services.php