I stayed away from here for a bit because the anxiety of waiting for the apostille was stressing me out 
But Iām happy to report that almost exactly 8 weeks later the Apostilled doc arrived. Sent Mar 9 received May 5th.
I must say that the apostille was quite a let down. Looked like something they printed on yellowed paper that had been stored in the attic for 10 years. 
Wasnāt even an ink signature. Yellowed photocopy paper thatās riveted to the FBI doc.
This is taking 8 weeks ? They should be capable of sending out a 100,000 a day of this stuff.
Anyway I have 4 weeks to get the stuff filed with the SEF
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I have read it is only a few days if you do it electronically versus sending the request through the mail?
Itās true that the background check is very quick (ours was same day) when done electronically. I donāt know if an opportunity to get the apostille electronically, but would love to get more info if thatās available.
Agree with electronic FBI / background check (same day always). Donāt know of any apostille electronicallyā¦ Right now itās still at least 6-8 weeks and mail-in only : <
@Ravig80111 did you use an apostille service or did you send in the request to US department of state yourself?
Hi Everyone. I have read this entire thread. But I didnāt find a one-stop (reply) definitive answer. Below are the ācertifiedā, ie. Apostille documents that Bison Bank and I assume for the ARI GV also require. My question is, The federal documents (passport, SS card for tax number) must receive a US State Dept. Apostille? and State issued documents (1. Proof of Address-What type of document? and; 2. Professional Occupation and Income-what type of document for this?) need my Secretary of State Apostille. Is this correct?
Finally, Do I actually send the physical passport, Social Security cardā¦?
Thanks for any help.
- Certified copy of the passport
- Certified copy of proof of address
- Certified copy of professional occupation and income
- Certified copy of your local Tax Number
There doesnāt appear to be a definitive answer. For me, itās an apostille of the FBI report and the marriage certificate and thatās it; everything else has been just providing the information to the lawyer. I donāt know if having a lawyer stand with POA counts as having done enough KYC to fill in somehow or not.
However a federal document does require state dept and a state document requires that stateās sec-of-state/great-seal.
In my experience, apostilles were not required for any documents to open a Bison Bank account. Bison Bank was content that my lawyer had certified those documents. It was a quick and painless process.
I did have to FedEx the pen-signed application forms, which was a little expensive.
There isnāt a definite list because it depends on what your lawyer feel comfortable certifying for you. However, I hope this helps:
- Certified copy of the passport - I scanned the whole passport book.
- Certified copy of proof of address: I provided a PDF of most current monthās bank statement.
- Certified copy of professional occupation and income: my employer has an automated way for me to request this and it was issued to me without any company stamped or signature.
- Certified copy of your local Tax Number: Anything with your SSN should work. I gave my lawyer last yearās tax return (just the 1040)
My lawyer certified these documents before they were sent to Bison.
@wkb Thank you. That is helpful. Hopefully this will also suffice with out the Apostille for GV submission.
Did the lawyer do anything besides just send over the documents you sent them? 
(Itās always fascinated me how much weight we put on some words on paper, even in an age where Photoshop conquers allā¦)
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I have no idea! I think they also submitted the documents to SEF electronically. I imagine SEF will see the real documents when we go get our biometrics thatās why they are not too concerned?
Thanks for sharing. Did you email these scanned copies to your lawyer and these were ācertifiedā by the lawyer? Nothing was noterized?
I am trying to peice together what SEF needs vs the bank.
We were asked for Apostilles on the following
Marriage certificate
Birth certificates of our children
Tax ID
Police reports
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thank you Joe,
What form of documentation did you use for the Tax ID apostille? Social Security card, W2, Form 1040?
Thanks again!
We live in the U.K. now, so we used a National Insurance Number. Itās like a SSN in the US. The same one we used to open the bank account.
Yes, we just emailed them to our lawyer. The documents I listed above, I didnāt notarize them. I suggest you ask your attorney what they want before preparing the documents because it seems like different attorneys ask for different things. Like @joseph.c.lapierre just mentioned that his tax ID was notarized. Some lawyers will ask you to translate the documents as well. Mine didnāt.
I just did this very recently: notarized and get them apostilled at my ālocal stateā department (same day; vs. having to send to DC and wait for months) ā thanks to suggestion by @wkb (I think : )
I had like 4 options and my lawyer did not like SS card immediately (it says āsocial securityā on it, which may confuse SEF people whoās looking for āTax IDā / TIN). 1099 / W2 were better.
(But we ultimately ended up using something completely atypical and different: I happen to have some IRS correspondence letter that says āDear Taxpayerā and has my SS listed as āTax IDā and my lawyer went for that immediately. And to my surprise my local state department apostilled that no problem (thanks to the notary I guess).
So bottomline it does depend on the lawyer I guess and their own comfort level on what to useā¦ Good luck.
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Thank you for the info. I am still evaluating lawyers.
Who is the law firm that you chose?
Sorry I didnāt see this till now. I used a local service (Denver) to get the fingerprint and FBI background check, and they in turn used Monument Visa. So I suppose I could have used Monument directly and saved $10 
. The one stop shop convenience.
What is interesting is that now the SEF seems to be accepting a scanned copy of the apostille. I didnāt have to fedex the original it to the atty. So I am in the SEF pre-approval queue whatever that means. The wait looks like it could be 4 mo based on what Iāve read in other forums. A few people who applied in Feb just got their biometric appts scheduled.