Getting Your Apostille After You've Already Left Colorado

If you left Colorado before completing the apostille step, or you’re coming back to this years after your original marriage and need a replacement or extra certified copy, mail-in is the path that works from anywhere.

The mail-in fallback

The mail-in process uses the same required document as the in-person route: a county-certified copy of your marriage certificate, not a photocopy. If you don’t already have one, you’ll need to request it from the county clerk where your license was recorded before you can mail anything to the Secretary of State.

What’s different about mailing it in

• No expedited option. The walk-in expedite (arrive before 4:30 PM, pay the added fee, done in under an hour) only applies to hand-delivered documents. Mail-in doesn’t have an equivalent rush option.
• Same payment rules apply. Submit payment as a check or money order; the Authentications office doesn’t accept credit or debit cards by mail any more than it does in person. See how can we actually pay for this? for more on payment throughout the process.
• Turnaround takes longer, and mail-in processing has been running slower than normal. See the apostille process for the full walkthrough of both routes.

Can it be mailed back to you internationally?

Probably, but it’s worth understanding how the return shipping works in practice before you count on it. The Authentications office doesn’t run a dedicated international-mail process; instead, their request form asks you to supply the return shipping yourself: a self-addressed, prepaid return envelope with tracking, or a prepaid FedEx/UPS label if you’d rather it come back that way. There’s no separate “international requester” option; the office just ships back using whatever prepaid, trackable packaging you send them.

Practically, that means a standard US domestic prepaid envelope or stamps won’t reach an address abroad. A prepaid FedEx or UPS international label, which you can generate from outside the US through those carriers’ own international shipping tools, should work, since the office is just using whatever prepaid label you provide.

We haven't confirmed this against the office directly, and we haven't been able to review their official request form to check its exact wording on this. This is our best read of publicly available information, not a confirmed process. If you're mailing in from outside the US, email the Authentications office first (they already do free pre-submission review by email; see the apostille process) and confirm they can work with an international prepaid return label before you send your certified copy.

Replacement copies, years later

The same mail-in process is also how you’d get a replacement or additional certified copy of a marriage from years ago; you’re not limited to doing this only in the immediate aftermath of your ceremony. Request a new certified copy from the county clerk, then mail it to the Authentications office the same way.

The takeaway

Missing the in-person window isn’t a dead end; it just means trading the speed of walk-in expedited service for the reliability of mail-in, with the same document requirements and the same cash-free payment rules either way.