Apostille & Document Legalization for the United States — from Canada

The request almost never comes from a border officer — it comes from an institution inside the United States. A US employer onboarding a Canadian under a TN or other cross-border work arrangement may want an apostilled RCMP criminal record check or an apostilled degree to satisfy HR or a state licensing board. A county clerk processing a marriage where one spouse is Canadian may ask for an apostilled birth certificate or proof of divorce. US banks, universities, and courts make similar requests when a Canadian document enters their process.

Visa Jet's role is to take that request — often a single line in an email from the US side — and turn it into a correctly prepared document: the right certificate version, notarized where applicable, and apostilled by the correct Canadian authority, delivered wherever in the United States it needs to go.

The United States and Canada are both parties to the Apostille Convention, and since Canada joined on 11 January 2024, Canadian public documents for the US take a single certification step: an apostille from the province's designated authority (for provincially issued or notarized documents) or from Global Affairs Canada (for federal documents such as RCMP checks). No US embassy or consulate legalization is involved.

The practical challenge is matching the document to the right issuing office and apostille authority — an Ontario birth certificate, a federally issued RCMP certificate, and a notarized copy of a degree each follow a different path. Visa Jet identifies the correct chain for each document and manages it end to end.

US institutions most often ask Canadians for the following, though every request should be confirmed with the office making it:

One frequent point of confusion: Canadian authorities can only apostille Canadian documents. An FBI background check, a US birth certificate, or a US diploma cannot be apostilled in Canada — those documents must be apostilled by the appropriate US authority, such as the US Department of State or a state Secretary of State. If your file mixes Canadian and American documents, we handle the Canadian side and point you to the correct US channel for the rest.

Translation is rarely an issue in this corridor since both countries work in English, but French-language documents from Quebec are sometimes asked for in English. Where that happens, we coordinate certified English translation so the receiving US office gets a package it can read and accept.

Canadian citizens generally do not need a visitor visa for most trips to the United States — entry for tourism and many business purposes is handled at the border. Where US work status such as TN classification is involved, the supporting documents matter, and we prepare and apostille the Canadian records that accompany those files without providing immigration advice.

Permanent residents of Canada and foreign nationals living here are in a different position: many need a US visitor visa from a US consulate. Visa Jet assists those applicants with document preparation, organization, and consistency review, while the decision always rests with the US authorities.

Everything moves by email and secure courier: you send us the request from the US institution, we confirm exactly what is needed, retrieve or receive the documents, arrange notarization and the apostille, and ship the finished package to you or directly to the US address. There is no office to visit and no need to be near Ottawa or a provincial capital.

Contact info@visajet.ca or +1 819-635-8787 with what the American side has asked for. We will map the steps and be straightforward about the one thing we cannot control: how quickly any government office processes its part.