How to Apostille a Massachusetts Degree from Abroad
To apostille a Massachusetts degree from abroad, three signatures have to happen in a fixed order. Your school’s registrar certifies the record in front of a notary, the notary notarizes that signature, and the Secretary of the Commonwealth in Boston apostilles the notary. You can’t walk that chain from Seoul or São Paulo, so most graduates hire a local partner to carry the papers and ship the finished set to them. That is the job we do from Tewksbury.
- We work with your registrar from Massachusetts
- Boston counter access
- Case tracking in ApostilleDesk
- Hablamos Español
Who apostilles a Massachusetts degree for a graduate living abroad?
The Secretary of the Commonwealth, Commissions Section, apostilles a Massachusetts degree. First the school registrar certifies the record in front of a Massachusetts notary. The apostille covers the notary, not the school. The state fee is $6 per document. The counter is at One Ashburton Place, Room 1719, Boston. Mail takes two to three weeks. The paper must be an original, not a PDF.
- Who apostilles: Secretary of the Commonwealth, Commissions Section
- Order of steps: Registrar, Massachusetts notary, Commissions Section, courier
- State fee: $6 per document
- Counter: One Ashburton Place, Room 1719, Boston
- Mail time: Two to three weeks
Who apostilles a Massachusetts degree, and why not the school
A Massachusetts university is not a government office. Its registrar can certify your record, but the Commonwealth has no registrar’s signature on file, so it can’t apostille the school’s own paper. The fix is the notary. The registrar signs in front of a Massachusetts notary, and the Commonwealth apostilles the notary, whose commission it can check.
International students who need to apostille a Massachusetts university degree are usually answering a request from a ministry, employer or immigration office back home. A Massachusetts diploma apostille and a Massachusetts transcript apostille are the same job with different paper. Both end at the Commissions Section of the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
Registrar, notary, Commonwealth. Then a courier to your door.
How the signatures chain together for a Massachusetts degree
The foreign office reads the chain backwards. The apostille vouches for the notary. The notary vouches for the registrar’s signature. The registrar vouches for the record. Break any link and the Commonwealth sends the paper back.
- Registrarcertifies the record
- MA notarynotarizes the registrar’s signature
- Commissions Section, BostonRoom 1719, One Ashburton Place
- Apostilleattached, $6 per document
- Courierto you or to the ministry abroad
Steps 1 and 2 happen at or near the school. Step 3 happens in Boston.
Two details trip people up. The registrar has to sign a certification statement, not merely hand over a sealed transcript. And the paper has to be an original. A scan or an emailed PDF gives the Commonwealth nothing to stamp.
A tip from our desk: order the transcript and degree letter first, and ship the diploma last. The diploma is the one item you can’t print again next week. Ask the destination whether a registrar’s degree letter is enough before it leaves your hands.
What the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office actually does
The Secretary of the Commonwealth’s apostille page says Massachusetts apostilles a school record only after the school official’s signature has been notarized. It also says records from schools in other states can’t be certified here and must go to the state where the school sits.
The fee on the office’s page is $6 per document, paid by check or money order to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts when you mail it in. Counter service is at the Commissions Section, One Ashburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, MA 02108. At the counter, three or fewer documents are done the same day and four or more the next business day. Mail takes two to three weeks.
What we could not confirm: whether the office offers an electronic apostille for school records. Nothing we found describes one, so assume paper and ask the office. From abroad, a prepaid return label bought in the United States is the awkward part of the mail route, and a big reason people hire a local agent.
Official page: Apostilles and Certification of Documents. Our explainers: the Secretary of State apostille guide and how long an apostille takes.
Days instead of weeks
A mailed packet waits two to three weeks. We carry your notarized set to Room 1719 ourselves, so the state step for a small set can finish the day we file it. From abroad, that’s the part of the clock you can actually shorten.
Get a quoteA master’s graduate in Seoul with a start date
Picture a graduate of a Cambridge university who moved back to Seoul. A new employer wants the degree apostilled before the visa paperwork goes in. Seoul runs 13 hours ahead of Boston in summer time and 14 in winter, so a 9 a.m. call to the registrar lands at 10 at night.
Email, don’t call
The graduate emails the registrar with the name used at graduation, the degree date and the documents wanted. Email beats the time gap, and the reply is a written record.
Notarized set arrives in Massachusetts
The registrar notarizes and sends the packet to our office, not Seoul. We check the notarial certificate before anything goes to Boston.
Counter, then courier
We take the set to the Commissions Section and ship the finished documents to Seoul with tracking. The graduate follows each move online.
What eight Massachusetts schools say on their own pages
We read each school’s public registrar page for this guide. Where a page doesn’t answer the question, the cell says so. Policies change, so confirm with the school before you send anything. We are not affiliated with any of these schools.
| School | What the page says | If you’re abroad | Confirmed from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard | It depends on the school. The Extension School does not notarize diplomas and issues a verification letter instead. Its transcripts come as a notarized copy from Academic Services. Other Harvard schools run their own process. | Email the registrar of your own Harvard school. The notarized Extension transcript arrives sealed, so don’t open it. | Extension page opened. Other Harvard schools run their own registrars, so ask each one. |
| MIT | The Registrar notarizes degree certifications, transcripts and diplomas at no charge. By mail you send a cover letter, a letter to the Secretary, a prepaid return label and a check. | Mail the packet to Room 5-117, Attn: Apostille Certifications. The page doesn’t address requests from abroad. | MIT Registrar apostille page |
| Boston University | Notarizes only its own documents. Requests are mail only, and standard USPS return is estimated at 5 to 8 weeks with no tracking. Certified electronic diplomas can’t be notarized. | Email a prepaid label, or name a trusted person in the United States to receive the papers. Email a scan of the diploma to start. | BU notary and apostille page |
| Northeastern | The Registrar coordinates notarization when a campus notary is available. The pages we read don’t describe an apostille process. | Open a case in the Registrar Service Portal and ask whether alumni abroad can have documents notarized. | Northeastern Registrar transcripts page |
| Tufts | The Arts, Sciences and Engineering page lists an apostille request at $75. The original diploma goes to the Registrar, which mails the set to the state. Graduates from 2023 on hold a certified electronic diploma. | The original diploma must cross the ocean unless a degree letter or electronic diploma will do. Ask first. | Tufts Registrar page |
| UMass Amherst | The Registrar notarizes transcripts in-house and diplomas from the original. It will not send papers to the state, so you do that step. It can’t notarize electronic copies. | You need someone in Massachusetts to carry the notarized papers to Boston. That is where we come in. | UMass Amherst Registrar page |
| Boston College | Complete the Apostille Request Form. Boston College notarizes the documents you select and returns them to you. The Secretary of the Commonwealth then issues the apostille. | Return shipping is your job, so give the Registrar a U.S. address you trust. | Boston College transcript requests page |
| Suffolk | No notary on campus. You order a transcript or replacement diploma marked “with apostille” through Parchment and hire a Massachusetts notary yourself. The page lists $14 and $50 plus the notary’s fee. | Arrange a mobile notary before you order. Published summaries of the Law School pages suggested apostille service was paused, so ask. | Suffolk transcripts and degrees page |
Some schools forward the packet to Boston, some hand it back, and some leave the whole job to you. A school that returns notarized papers to a foreign address adds a second ocean crossing before the state step even starts. Shipping to a U.S. address you control avoids that.
Documents students ask about, and which ones get an apostille
Diploma
The registrar certifies a copy, the notary notarizes that signature, and the Commonwealth apostilles the notary. Some schools want the original in hand. BU starts from an emailed scan. Ask which, because a mailed original is the riskiest shipment in this process.
Final transcript
Foreign evaluators read this first. If the registrar only emails a PDF, stop. Electronic transcripts and PDFs cannot be apostilled, and UMass says it cannot notarize electronic copies. Ask for the paper route or a notarized printout.
Degree verification or enrollment letter
Often the easiest to get done. The registrar signs a short letter naming the degree and the date conferred. Notarize it, apostille it, and you have proof of the degree without moving the diploma.
I-20 and DS-2019
These are U.S. federal forms, not Massachusetts school records. The Commonwealth does not authenticate federal documents, so it can’t apostille them. If a foreign office asks for one, find out what it needs to see. Usually it is proof of study dates, which a registrar letter supplies.
Course syllabi and course descriptions
Some evaluators want them. A syllabus is not an official record, so some registrars refuse. When a department will certify one on letterhead before a notary, the same chain applies. Ask early.
Background-check and good-standing letters
A good-standing letter from the dean of students can go through the school chain. An FBI report is a federal document and goes to the U.S. Department of State, not Boston. Our federal apostille guide covers it.
Apostille applies to
- Certified diploma copies and paper transcripts.
- Degree letters signed by a school official.
Not to
- Emailed PDFs and I-20 forms.
- Records of schools in other states.
A step by step plan that works across time zones
- 1
Ask the destination what it wants
Get the exact documents, the route (apostille or legalization) and any translation rule. Write it down.
- 2
Check the country on the Hague status table
A country that isn’t a party needs legalization. The HCCH status table is the official list. Our Hague country list and the apostille versus legalization guide explain the difference.
- 3
Email the registrar with three questions
Will you notarize for an alumnus abroad? Will you send the packet to the state or hand it back? Can you ship to a U.S. address I name? Once your order is open, that address can be our Tewksbury office.
- 4
Send us the application and get the free review
We compare what the destination asked for with what the school will do.
- 5
Ship the originals only if you must
If the school needs the diploma in hand, use a tracked courier, photograph every page first, and add a cover note listing each document and your phone number with country code.
- 6
Follow the file online
Case tracking in ApostilleDesk starts when your file opens. We ship the finished set to you or the ministry with a tracking number.
Six ways a Massachusetts degree set gets stuck
The registrar sent a PDF
Electronic ordering services often deliver a file, not paper. The Commissions Section has nothing to stamp on a file. Ask each school for its notarized paper route.
The notary isn’t a Massachusetts notary
The Commonwealth apostilles notaries it commissions. A notary from another state, or one with a lapsed commission, sends the set back. See why Massachusetts rejects some notarized documents.
The signature wasn’t witnessed properly
A stamped page with no notarial certificate attached will bounce. Review the set before it leaves campus.
The school was in another state
A semester at a New Hampshire or New York school sits on that school’s transcript, and Massachusetts can’t certify it. Each school goes through its own state, as our out-of-state guide explains.
A lost diploma
Tufts says a replacement diploma can add up to three more weeks. Start that clock first, or choose the degree letter route.
An electronic diploma assumed to be enough
BU and Tufts both say certified electronic diplomas can reduce the need for an apostille. A ministry abroad may still ask for the paper chain, so confirm first. Our common mistakes guide lists more.
What the receiving office tends to want
A ministry in Europe
A graduate in Germany or Spain applies for recognition of the degree. The ministry often wants the apostilled diploma and transcript, and sometimes a sworn translation. We are not a sworn translator and do not arrange sworn translations. If the ministry demands one, you hire a sworn translator there and we ship the apostilled set to them. We can provide ATA certified translations that get notarized. See certified translation and apostille.
An employer in Korea
Korea has been party to the Apostille Convention since 2007 on the HCCH table, so a Massachusetts apostille is the standard form. Employers often ask for the diploma and a transcript. Ask whether a degree letter will do.
A university or ministry in Latin America
Brazil has been party since 2016. A graduate in São Paulo who wants a U.S. degree recognized usually needs the apostilled documents plus a translation by a sworn translator in Brazil. Rules differ by institution, so ask.
A Gulf or wider Asian office
Saudi Arabia’s entry into force was December 2022 and China’s November 2023, per HCCH. Vietnam’s was 11 September 2026. Anywhere not on the table needs legalization through the embassy instead. Our Vietnam guide covers the newest change.
If you also need a birth or marriage certificate
A residency file, a marriage abroad or a family visa often asks for a birth or marriage certificate too. Massachusetts treats these differently from school records. A certified copy from the city or town clerk, or the state’s vital records office, already carries a signature the Commonwealth has on file, so it can go straight to the apostille step without a notary.
Order the certified copies in your name and send them to the same Tewksbury address, and we can file them on the same order as the degree. Start with our guides to birth certificate apostille, marriage certificate apostille and divorce decree apostille.
Each state apostilles its own schools
Massachusetts will not certify a record from a school in another state. We handle those through the right state office. Each guide covers one state.
| State | Who it helps | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| New Hampshire | Online students abroad, Dartmouth, UNH, Keene State, Plymouth State and Saint Anselm. | Read the New Hampshire guide |
| New York | NYU, Columbia, Cornell, CUNY and SUNY. | Read the New York guide |
| California | UC, CSU, Stanford, USC and community college graduates. | Read the California guide |
| Texas | UT Austin, Texas A&M, Rice, Houston and UNT. | Read the Texas guide |
| Maine | Small colleges and the University of Maine system. | Read the Maine guide |
| Rhode Island | Brown, RISD, URI, Providence College and Roger Williams. | Read the Rhode Island guide |
| Florida | UF, FIU, UCF, Miami and USF graduates. | Read the Florida guide |
| Pennsylvania | Penn, Penn State, Pitt, Temple, Drexel and Carnegie Mellon. | Read the Pennsylvania guide |
| Illinois | UChicago, UIUC, Northwestern, DePaul and UIC. | Read the Illinois guide |
Our part of the chain
We are a private document preparation and courier service in Tewksbury, serving Boston and the Merrimack Valley since 2007. We are not a government agency and not affiliated with any state office or school. We work with your registrar to obtain the certified or notarized copy where the school allows it, take the set to the Commissions Section in Boston, and ship the finished documents to you abroad.
Massachusetts state apostilles cost $149.95 for Economy, $199.95 for Express and $385.95 for Rush, per document, with the state government fee and return postage included. Rush, our fastest service, takes 1 to 2 days for Massachusetts and New Hampshire documents. Other states depend on the volume at the state office. Every order starts with a free document review, and we ask about your destination in that review. See the pricing page for details, or the page on apostille service in Massachusetts.
School fees, notary fees and translation are separate and vary by school. Ask us about a volume discount.
Get an itemized quoteFrequently asked questions
Who apostilles a Massachusetts degree?
The Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Commissions Section in Boston. It apostilles the notary who witnessed your registrar’s signature, not the school. The registrar certifies the record, the notary notarizes that signature, and the Commonwealth adds the apostille.
Do I have to ship my original diploma overseas back to Massachusetts?
Often yes, because some schools certify a copy only from the original. Others, like BU for its first step, ask for a scan. Ask the registrar. If the destination accepts a degree letter instead, the diploma never has to travel.
Is an emailed transcript good enough?
No. Electronic transcripts and PDFs cannot be apostilled. The Commonwealth stamps a paper original carrying a notary’s real signature. Ask the registrar for a paper transcript or a notarized printout, and confirm that the destination accepts it.
How long does the whole process take for someone abroad?
Add the school’s notarization time, our state service level and the courier legs. UMass Amherst quotes two to three business days to notarize and BU two to three weeks. Our Economy service runs 1 to 2 weeks and Express 2 to 5 business days.
Does Massachusetts apostille a degree from a school in another state?
No. The state where the school sits has to certify its own records. We route those through the correct state office. If you studied in Texas or New Hampshire, use that state’s guide in the table above.
Is an I-20 something I can apostille?
Not in Massachusetts. It is a federal form, and the Commonwealth does not authenticate federal documents. If a foreign office asks for it, find out what it needs to see. A registrar letter showing your study dates often serves the purpose.
Do you provide sworn translations?
No. We can provide ATA certified translations that get notarized, but we are not a sworn translator and we do not arrange sworn translations. If your destination demands one, you hire a sworn translator there and we ship the apostilled set to them.
Related guides and services
From a registrar’s desk in Massachusetts to your door abroad
Tell us the school and the country. We coordinate the registrar, the notary, the counter in Boston and the courier, and you follow every step online.
