Michigan Apostille: What the Office of the Great Seal Requires

An apostille does not verify what a document says. It certifies that the signature, seal, or stamp on the document is genuine, which is what a foreign registry, university, or court needs before it will accept a Michigan record. The agency that performs this step is the same one that commissions notaries, and it is one of several offices covered in Michigan vital records and personal documents, the state-level overview of who holds which record.

Who issues a Michigan apostille

The Office of the Great Seal is part of the Bureau of Elections in the Michigan Department of State. It commissions notaries public, maintains the state’s official repository, and issues both apostilles and Certificates of Authority. According to the Office of the Great Seal, the Secretary of State has no legal authority to file a document and affix the Great Seal unless a statute expressly permits it, and documents authenticated with the Great Seal carry the same effect as the originals.

Mail reaches the office at Michigan Department of State, Bureau of Elections, 7064 Crowner Drive, Lansing, MI 48918. The public counter sits in the Richard H. Austin Building at 430 W. Allegan Street, first floor, in Lansing, and the main phone number is 888-767-6424.

County clerks, city clerks, and notaries do not issue apostilles. They produce or notarize the underlying document; the Great Seal certifies the official who signed it.

Which Michigan documents qualify

The Office of the Great Seal certifies signatures it can verify against its own records. Per the Department of State’s document authentication and apostille page, that means three categories:

• Documents notarized by a Michigan notary public, complete and bearing original signatures.
• Certified copies of birth, marriage, divorce, or death records issued by the Michigan State Registrar, a Michigan county clerk, or the city clerks of Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland counties.
• Certified copies of Articles of Incorporation issued by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

Documents issued by court clerks and documents received by fax are not accepted. Records written in a language other than English must be submitted with a written English translation.

Photocopies raise a recurring problem. Mich. Comp. Laws § 55.291 prohibits a Michigan notary public from certifying that a record is an original or a true copy of another record, and the Department of State repeats that limit in its authentication guidance. A diploma or passport page therefore cannot be made apostille-ready by asking a notary to stamp the copy as true and correct.

What the notary block has to show

Most rejected requests fail on the notarial certificate rather than the underlying document. Mich. Comp. Laws § 55.287 requires the notary to sign every record exactly as the name appears on the commission application, and to print or stamp, near that signature, the notary’s name, the statement “Notary public, State of Michigan, County of __”, the statement “My commission expires ____”, the date the notarial act was performed, and, where the act happens outside the county of commission, the county of execution.

The Department of State’s pre-submission checklist tracks the same elements: full name, signature, date of notarization, commission expiration date, county of commission, and county of execution when it differs.

Requesting an apostille by mail

Mail is the default channel. The Office of the Great Seal cannot authenticate documents online or at a self-service station.

1. Confirm what the destination country requires

   Apostilles are issued only for countries party to the Hague Convention of 1961. Countries outside the treaty require a Certificate of Authority, which uses the same form, the same $1 fee, and the same instructions. The Department of State’s authentication page explains that an apostille cannot be issued for use inside the United States.

2. Get the document into an acceptable form

   Either have it notarized by a Michigan notary with original signatures, or order a certified copy from the State Registrar, a county clerk, or an authorized city clerk. Add a written English translation for any foreign-language text.

3. Complete the authentication request form and a cover letter

   The form asks for contact and return information. The cover letter names the country where the document will be used, which determines whether the office issues an apostille or a Certificate of Authority.

4. Enclose payment

   The document certification fee is $1 per document, paid by check or money order made payable to the State of Michigan. The office asks that cash not be mailed.

5. Enclose return postage and mail the packet

   A self-addressed stamped envelope, or a fully completed prepaid air bill listing your account number and address as sender, has to travel with the request. The Great Seal does not pay return postage. Send everything to the Office of the Great Seal, 7064 Crowner Drive, Lansing, MI 48918.

Requests are reviewed and processed in the order received, so no posted turnaround applies to an individual packet.

Getting an apostille in person

In-person authentication runs by appointment only, on Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m., through the Department of State’s online appointment system or by calling 888-767-6424. As of 2026, document authentication is offered at branch offices in Clinton Township, Detroit (West Grand Boulevard), Flint (Fenton Road), Grand Rapids (28th Street), Lansing (East Michigan Avenue), Livonia, Marquette, and Pontiac, plus the Office of the Great Seal counter in the Austin Building.

An office visit needs the same three things a mailed request needs: a completed and signed authentication request form, the $1 per document fee, and the documents themselves with the original signature of a notary or authorized official. Certified copies still have to be certified copies. The Great Seal office asks visitors to arrive at least an hour before closing so there is time to process the paperwork.

Documents headed to non-Hague countries

For a country outside the Hague Convention, the Michigan certification is the first of two or three steps. The Office of the Great Seal issues a Certificate of Authority rather than an apostille, and many of those countries will accept the document only after it has been certified at both the state and federal levels.

The federal step runs through the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Authentications. Its guidance on preparing a document for an authentication certificate directs the holder to have the state authenticate the record first, then submit Form DS-4194 with the fee and the documents. Birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce decrees, powers of attorney, diplomas, transcripts, police records, and articles of incorporation all appear on the federal list of state-issued documents that commonly need this treatment. Some destination countries add a third step at their own embassy or consulate.

The reverse case is simpler. For a Hague Convention country, the federal apostille guidance states that a state-issued document only needs certification by the state that issued it, with no federal apostille on top. A Michigan apostille from the Office of the Great Seal finishes the job.