Individuals that are interested in moving to another country, either for a defined period of time or on a more permanent basis, may need to obtain an apostille criminal background check before they are allowed to travel to the other country.  An apostille is issued by the office of the Secretary of State for the state that the individual is living in at the time and basically certifies that a notarized document has been legally notarized by a licensed notary and that the signatures on the document are valid.  There are many countries that require the traveler to have a valid apostille criminal background check before traveling to their country to stay.

In most cases, in order to have a valid apostille criminal background check, the person must first request a background check from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Once that is received, the background check must be notarized by a licensed notary, then authenticated by the county clerk's office to say that the notary's seal and signature is accurate.  In the last step, this paperwork is taken to the Secretary of State's office where all of the seals and signatures will be verified and a document to be created saying that all of the signatures and seals are verified, accurate, and authentic.