Authentication Services

Important Notice: Authentication services are available by appointment only.   Schedule your appointment on-line at the end of the page.  Read the following information carefully before scheduling your appointment.

Authentication of Chilean documents

An authentication is a certification of the genuineness of the signature and seal or the position of a Chilean official who has previously executed, issued, or certified a document so that a document executed or issued in Chile may be recognized in the United States.

If you need to authenticate a Chilean official document such as a birth, death or marriage certificate, police certificate, or other public or private documents, you must complete the chain of the authentication process:

First, you must obtain the document to authenticate from the corresponding issuing entity.

Secondly, you must obtain the first stamp before the corresponding “Oficina de Legalizaciones” of the Ministry under which the issuing entity operates.

Thirdly, you must obtain the authentication stamp before the “Oficina de Legalizaciones” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Finally, you obtain the authentication stamp before our Consulate at the U.S. Embassy in Santiago.

You can read more about this process in the following link of the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in Spanish) http://www.minrel.gov.cl/prontus_minrel/site/artic/20080910/pags/20080910153956.php

Consular Fee

The notary service fee is US$50 per notary stamp and signature.

Payment methods:  cash (U.S. dollars or Chilean pesos) or credit card. The credit card holder must be present with identification to use a credit card.

We do not take debit cards (Redcompra) or checks.

Schedule your appointment

All authentication services require an appointment.  Select the following category when you make your appointment on-line:  “Request notarial and other services not listed above”.

On scheduling your appointment you will receive a Confirmation Sheet.  Please print the Confirmation Sheet and bring it with you to the interview.  Applicants who do not appear at the appointment time will experience considerable delays and/or the possibility of the appointment not being honored.

Just FYI, if you need an authentication service, it isn’t necessary that you come personally to the Embassy to submit this document.  You can send someone else to obtain this service on your behalf.  When scheduling the appointment, it must be under the name of the person who will come to the Embassy.

Please go back to the following link to read about the notary services that are not provided at the U.S. Embassy.

The Following Notary and Authentication Services are not Provided at the U.S. Consular Section

A U.S. Consular officer in Chile does not have the authority to authenticate any official document issued in the United States.

If you need to authenticate a U.S. issued document in order to submit it before a Chilean institution, said document can only be authenticated by the U.S. Department of State Authentications office and a Chilean Consul in the United States.

The only exception is for Social Security, Veterans Affairs and OPM documents that state the monthly income of the beneficiary.  If this is the service you need, please email santiagofbu@state.gov

You can read more about Authentications and Notary services on the Department of State website  on the following link: http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/english/legal-considerations/judicial/authentication-of-documents.html

For more information on the U.S. Department of State Office of Authentications, see: http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/english/legal-considerations/judicial/authentication-of-documents/office-of-authentications.html

For a full list of Chilean Consulates in the U.S., click here

The U.S. Embassy does not authenticate or provide certified true copies of Chilean transcripts, degrees or any other school documents for use in the United States, as agreed by the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Education in 1983.  You can read more about this on the following link. http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/abroad/legal-matters/academic-credentials.html

If you need a certificate of grade equivalency of Chilean and American grades, please contact EducationUsa

Academic records issued by  U. S. schools must be authenticated through a Chilean Consulate in the U.S.  It is not possible to authenticate U.S. issued documents, to include school records, through U.S. Embassy, Santiago.   See Number 1 above, “Authentication of U.S. documents for use in Chile”.

Please read the following link on the State Department website to read more about this http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/abroad/legal-matters/academic-credentials.html

Consular officers are NOT authorized to provide signature guarantee/medallion guarantee service.  A medallion signature guarantee is not a notary service.  A medallion signature guarantee is a special signature guarantee for the transfer of securities.  The signatures of investors on stock certificates must be “guaranteed” by a financial institution participating in a medallion program approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when selling or transferring securities.  No other form of signature verification can be accepted to transfer securities.

Only a Chilean notary has jurisdiction to notarize signatures in documents that will be used within Chile or that will be submitted before a Chilean Authority.