If you live in Texas and need to buy, sell, or manage real estate in Colombia, you will likely need a power of attorney so someone there can sign on your behalf. Colombia is a Hague Apostille member, so an apostille has a role here, but there is a critical trap: for a general property-sale power of attorney, a document that is merely notarized and apostilled is not accepted. Colombian law requires that kind of power to be granted as an escritura pública. Understanding which type of power you need is the difference between a clean closing and a rejected document.
What an apostille is
An apostille is a certificate that authenticates a public document — a notary's signature, a court seal, a registrar's certification — so it will be accepted by authorities in another country. For countries in the Hague Apostille Convention, the apostille is the finish line. For countries outside it, the same Texas certificate is the first step in a short legalization chain.
Does an apostille work in Colombia?
Colombia is a member of the Hague Apostille Convention, so an apostille from the Texas Secretary of State authenticates a Texas document for use there. But authentication is not the same as sufficiency. A general power of attorney to sell property must be granted as an escritura pública; a notarized-and-apostilled general POA on its own will be rejected. An apostille does properly support the narrower alternative described below.
How the Texas Secretary of State apostille works
Texas apostilles come from a single office: the Secretary of State's Authentications Unit in Austin. There is no county-clerk step — a document notarized by any Texas notary, in any of the 254 counties, goes straight to the state. Since October 2023 Texas issues one Universal Apostille (Form 2102) that works for every destination, whether or not the country belongs to the Hague Apostille Convention.
The state fee is $15 per document. Mailed requests can take up to 25 business days; in-person and appointment service in Austin is same-day for up to 10 documents, and a bulk drop-box handles larger batches in 24–48 hours. There is no online submission — every request is handled by mail or in person. Certified copies of vital records (birth, death, marriage, divorce) must be less than five years old.