Oklahoma Apostille for Documents Used in Türkiye

The Oklahoma Secretary of State is the office authorized to issue apostilles in the state. Its own list of typical documents reads like a checklist for anyone dealing with Turkish authorities: birth certificates, marriage licenses, divorce decrees, background checks, powers of attorney, survivor certificates, school transcripts and adoption documents.

For a birth record, the apostille is attached to a certified copy. What it confirms is that the person who certified the copy was an official at the time of the certification; certified copies of Oklahoma birth certificates come from the State Department of Health.

The one-year rule

Oklahoma sets a date limit that catches many applicants. Any marriage license, divorce decree and any court certified document must be dated within the past year. An older copy of a divorce decree will not do; a current certified copy has to be ordered from the County Court Clerk's office where the document was issued.

Notarized papers follow a simpler route. The apostille may be attached to an original notarized document, which covers a power of attorney signed before an Oklahoma notary for use in Türkiye. It may also be attached to a certified copy of a recordable document issued by an Oklahoma statewide officer.

Documents can be handed in or mailed. A mailed request needs a cover letter that names the country requiring the document, a telephone number or email address, and the return mailing address. Name Türkiye as the destination country.

Once the apostille is on

The document then reaches our office in Ankara, where translators sworn before a Turkish notary prepare the Turkish version. If the Turkish authority wants the translation notarized, a Turkish notary does that. The authority itself decides whether to accept the document.