Hi Cyndy. This has been answered in other places on the forum. You could see this thread for some more discussion about it: Apostille and document preparation for US GV investors.
But in general, for documents issued in the US, you do not need to notarize them if they were issued directly by a government agency. For example, your birth certificate is an official document, hence no notarization is required.
You would need to apostille those documents, and you will always need to send the original document for apostille. You can’t send in a photocopy. Keep in mind you can always request official copies of birth/marriage certificates from your home state, which count as an “original” for this purpose.
You can get these documents apostilled yourself pretty easily by mail. Depending on which government issued the document (state or federal), you need to send it to that government for apostille.
So, for federal documents, like your FBI background check ( which you can get here, by the way ), needs to be sent to the U.S. State Department once you get it back: Requesting Authentication Services.
For state-issued documents, like your birth and marriage certificates, those need to go to their state of origin. So for example, in my home state of Oregon, I’d send it to the Oregon Secretary of State. State of Oregon: Business - How to Get an Authentication (or Apostille). You can look up your own home state.
The process is generally similar for all of them, you need to print off and fill out a cover sheet, mail your documents in with a check for the fee, and often give them a self-addressed, stamped envelope which they’ll use to return your documents. The specifics vary by state and agency, but pretty much all of them lay it out on their respective website for you.
You could pay an agency extra to do this, but all they are really doing is submitting the document for you and charging you a fee. It’s not hard at all to DIY this.