Being remotely placed, Puerto Rico is one of the territories which we receive the most inquiries about when it comes to apostille. In the recent years there were so many developments to document procedures issued by the government of Puerto Rico, that it will take more than one page to list them all. We will try going over only the most important ones that need to be kept in mind for apostille and authentication procedures.
Firstly, all vital records from Puerto Rico must be recently issued certified documents. Due to numerous fraud issues, Puerto Rico has cancelled all vital records issued prior to a certain date. As the result, a lot of people had to re-apply for new documents and prove their eligibility. So if you have an old birth, marriage, divorce or death certificate, chances are the document is not eligible for apostille, foreign use or domestic use.
Second, after numerous issues with the delivery and payment systems, the Government of Puerto Rico has established the stamp prepayment and document verification program. So before the document can be apostilled or authenticated, it must be submitted to a designated facility which will collect the duties and examine the eligibility. Then the stamp and order number will be delivered to Puerto Rico government and a receipt will be delivered to the applicant. Only after all of this requirements are satisfied can the applicant submit the document for stamping.
So far, Puerto Rico is the only US territory to implement such procedure.