State or federal apostille for Migración?

[Pat Murphy]

Hello everyone. After years of travels to Argentina and a previous two year residency with DNI, I decided to return and stay.

The trámite with Migración is all finished except for the apostille requirements. The issue is that, according to two apostille agencies in the Washington D.C. area, a U.S. Dept. of State apostille for the (1.) FBI Criminal History and (2.) Veterans Affairs federal income verification letter will take 7 - 9 weeks. However, both agencies said that a state level apostille (i.e. Maryland) will require just 2 days.

My question to the collective experience and knowledge here is: "Will a state level apostille be sufficient for Migración"? The Migración employee only said that I needed to have the documents apostilled. I would think that an official apostille from a U.S. state verifying the authenticity of the documents would suffice. But, with different employees in Migración having giving me different answers before, regarding the same question, I thought that I'd ask folks here. I've already paid the $350 to the D.C. agency to apostille the two documents. They are just waiting for me to confirm whether or not I want a state level apostille or a U.S. Dept. of State apostille. The D.C. agency employee said the the Argentina Foreign Ministry will accept state level apostilles but she was unsure whether Migración will.

If anyone here has any experience with this issue, I would sincerely appreciate it.

Thanks and with best regards, Pat Murphy

 

[Pat Murphy]

I was just notified that both documents would be legally apostilled (authenticated / verified) by the State of New York in accordance with the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention. An example of a New York State Apostille is attached. It would seem that this would be sufficient. Any previous experience with this from anyone would be much appreciated.

 

[Jay J.]

That is a very good question. The Apostille Convention is essentially a multi-national certification process. That is it. Upon the process being concluded, the apostille is deemed sufficient to certify the document for any state where the Apostille Convention is in force and in which the process has been followed. The authority of the United States as a signatory extends to the the State of New York in your example, and as is indicated in the top line (Convention de La Haye du 5 Octubre 1961) of the NY Apostille.

However, trying to explain that to an indifferent Migración employee preoccupied with sipping maté, drinking coffee, watching TikTok videos, shooting the breeze with their colleagues and chatting on WhatsApp ..... well, that is another story. I hear what you're saying - get it done in two days or wait over two months. If Migración says no to the NY apostille you'd have to pay again for another apostille.

I have had some legendary experiences with Migración. It's supposed to be better now, but I doubt it. Good luck!

 

[Luigi]

If it is a federal document, it needs to be apostiled by the state department. I had to send my fbi background check to the state dept.

 

[Alby]

Not strictly relevant to the case, but in answer to the doubt about whether it's any better now: it isn't. On Friday I had an apostilled document arbitrarily rejected by Migraciones because I had had it notarized. They want me to resubmit the same document (a letter) with a new apostille but no notarization (and they want the letter to state something it already clearly states). But my country won't apostille the document without it first having been notarized.

 

[Pat Murphy]

Not strictly relevant to the case, but in answer to the doubt about whether it's any better now: it isn't. On Friday I had an apostilled document arbitrarily rejected by Migraciones because I had had it notarized. They want me to resubmit the same document (a letter) with a new apostille but no notarization (and they want the letter to state something it already clearly states). But my country won't apostille the document without it first having been notarized.

I was down there on Friday as well. None of the people waiting seemed happy.

 

[Pat Murphy]

If it is a federal document, it needs to be apostiled by the state department. I had to send my fbi background check to the state dept.

Thanks Luigi. From what I found on the internet, Migracion is supposed to accept a U.S. state level apostille. Most probably they won't, but for the sake of expediency, I will give it a try and then the immigration attorney can fight with them. I was told by the Migracion employee to simply upload an apostille. Well, okay. The New York state apostille is a legally recognized apostille - probably everywhere but here since Migracion never misses an opportunity to substitute administrative nonsense for common sense. Their country, their rules. I get it. If it costs another $350, so be it.

 

[lunar]

The New York state apostille is a legally recognized apostille ...

Apostille or not, how can New York state certify that you don't have a criminal history on a federal level?

 

[steveinbsas]

Apostille or not, how can New York state certify that you don't have a criminal history on a federal level?

Excellent point

If I understand correctly, the Apostille from any state certifies the "authenticity" of a document, but does not verify the information contained in any document.

It is the FBI report which certifies that you don't have avcrimimal history (unless you do), not the apostille.

As far as I know, migraciones has "always" required the FBI report to be "authenticated" by the US Department of State as opposed to being apostilled by a Secretsry of State, who has the power to apostille almost anything with a notarized signature, regardless of the authenticity of the information

 

[Ries]

I was told the FBI needs to be a Federal State Dept Apostille, as opposed to a State government one, and thats what I got, and it went thru Migraciones just fine, got my precaria in December and my notice of acceptance a couple of days ago. Now, I have to wait who knows how long for an actual DNI- I hear the same plastic card with RFI chip shortage that makes it hard to find a Sube card affects physical DNI cards.