Why Your Diploma Apostille Gets Rejected for a Korean E-2 Visa
Diploma apostilles get rejected because an apostille only certifies a signature, not the content of the document — an unnotarized photocopy of your degree has no signature on it to certify, so the notary has to come before the apostille office, not after.
Park English2026-09-172 min read
Here's the mix-up we see most often, and it costs people two to three weeks they didn't need to lose. A criminal background check is a public document. A government office issued it, a government official signed it, and the apostille office can certify that signature directly. Your diploma is a private document. A university issued it, sure, but the apostille office in your home state or country has no way to confirm that signature belongs to your registrar unless a notary public has already sworn to it.
So the order matters, and it goes like this:
- Get a notarized copy of your diploma first. A notary public — at a bank, a shipping store, sometimes a lawyer's office — signs and stamps a statement that the copy in front of them matches the original.
- Take that notarized copy to the apostille-issuing office. In the US this is your state's Secretary of State. In the UK it's the FCDO. In Canada, Global Affairs Canada. In Australia, DFAT.
- Apostille the criminal record check separately. It skips the notary step because it's already a signed government document.
- Send both to your school or recruiter, with English translations if your issuing country doesn't produce documents in English.
We've seen two teachers from the same US state get two different answers from two different county clerks about whether the notary has to be local. It genuinely varies by office, sometimes by which clerk happens to be at the counter that day. Call ahead if you can. It's the one part of this whole process where "just check the website" doesn't always work, because the website is often out of date.
| Document | Type | Notary step needed first? | Typical issuer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diploma / degree certificate | Private | Yes | University registrar |
| Sealed transcript | Private, sometimes exempt | Often no — the seal itself may suffice | University registrar |
| State-level criminal record check | Public | No | State or provincial police |
| FBI background check (US) | Public, different channel | No, but must go through an FBI-approved channeler, not a standard apostille | FBI |
Two more things worth knowing. First, apostille turnaround varies wildly by office — same-day walk-in in some state capitals, two to three weeks by mail in others. If you're mailing a diploma from overseas while working full-time in a different country, budget the longer end. Second, if you already hold an F-2, F-4, F-5, or F-6 visa, Korean immigration generally doesn't require this apostille run at all for a hagwon hiring — but the hagwon itself may still ask for a notarized diploma copy for its own personnel file, so don't assume you're off the hook just because immigration is.
The document that trips people up most isn't the background check. It's the diploma, precisely because it looks like the simplest one to photocopy and mail.