TYPES OF DOCUMENTS
Animal/Plant Certifications
Animal and Plant Export Health Certificates verify that agricultural products are prepared or raised in accordance with the requirements of the Country of Desination (importing country). In the United States of America, Aninmal and Plant Health Certificates are issued primarily by the United States Department of Agricuture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for live animals, raw fruits and vegetables, and some grain products. APHIS ensures that the United States exporters have met animal and plant health requirement for export.
APHIS serves as the principal United States scientific authority on verification of the Animal and Plant Export Health Certificates when communicating with foreign countries. Animal and Plant Export Health Certificates assure foreign countries that their health requirements have been met and aim to keep dieases from crossing international borders.
An exporter must collaborate with APHIS to obtain an Animal and Plant Export Health Certificate. APHIS's Plant Production Quarantine (PPQ) and Veterinary Services (VS) oversee the Health Certificate endorsement process.
PLANT HEALTH CERTIFICATES
PPQ is the United States government authority that issues Plant Export Health Certificates for plants, bulbs and tubers, seeds for propagation, fruits and vegetables, cut flowers and branches, grain, and growing medium. PPQ's plant health attestation assists exporters in meeting the importer's food safety requirements.
The exporter must cooperate and follow PPQ's following certification process:
- Submit a Plant Export Health Certificate application to PPQ.
- PPQ technical staff performs specific tests on the plant products and determines certification based on the Country of Destination's import requirements.
- After verifying the PPQ requirements, PPQ issues a completed Export Certificate to the exporter (you).
- Exorter pays the PPQ a service fee.
ANIMAL HEALTH CERTIFICATES
VS is the United States government authority that issues Animal Export Health Certificates for live animals (including semen and embryos), pets, animal products, and biologics (vaccines, bacterins, antisera, diagnostic kits, and other products of biological origin).
The exporter must cooperate and follow VS's following certification process:
The exporter must cooperate and follow VS's following certification process:
- Submit an Animal Export Health Certificate application to VS.
- An USDA-accredited veterinarian or technical staff inspects and approves the faciltiy where the live animals were raised.
- USDA-accredited veterinarians and special laboratories peform all the tests and/or animal examinations and determines certification based on the Country of Destination's import requirements.
- After verifying the VS requirements, VS issues a completed Export Certificate to the exporter (you).
- Exorter pays the VS service fee.
Animal and Plant Export Health Certificates are an United States Federal Government Document authenticated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and can only be Apostilled through the United States Department of State (USDOS) in Washington D.C. This document cannot be notarized, copy certified, and no State Office can process this document. All United States Federal Documents are processed through the United States Secretary of State or the United States Department of State.
In order for us to process your United States Passport, you must mail in the original certified copy by the USDA to our office. ONLY THE ORIGINAL CERTIFIED DOCUMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED. A Photocopy is not acceptable. Once we receive your documents, in order to minimize errors and processing time, we will verify that all documents received from notaries before submitting them to be Apostilled. We will contact you as soon as possible if any errors are encountered and we will instruct you on how they need to be corrected.
Obtaining an Apostille can be a complicated process and should not be left to someone who does not understand all of the steps involved. Untrained persons that do not understand all of the requirements for legalization in each country are more likely to make errors, which will severely delay the Apostille process and cost you more money.
Once the original certified English Animal and Plant Export Health Certificates are properly received you can mail it to us to be Apostilled. We can also provide Certified Translation Services into the language required by the Country of Designation.
Here at Ezra Notary and Apostille,