Department Of State

Slow service, bitter attitude. Make sure you bring your money order or check before, otherwise they’ll ship you to the drug store in 165 William street, where their attitude toward their «captive audience» to buy the money order is even worse.
Be prepared for a long wait, which in my case was made even worse because with a place full of customers they decided to run a fire drill.
Unbelievable.

I go here a few times a year to deal with international documents.
It is a government agency, not a five star hotel, so my expectation is that if I follow their rules and procedures, they will do their job, and you will walk out with goal accomplished.
I think their were some budget cuts a few years ago, so the queues are longer than they once were. Waitings times of an hours or so is common, and sometime there are not enough chairs, but its not really that bad. I find the workers pleasant enough, and find they will try to help people out that are willing to listen. Those that don’t want to listen to the advice from the workers are beyond help. My advise would be to listen, not argue. These folks have no incentive steer you wrong.
As many people come after visiting the county clerk’s office, if you can come early, you are doing yourself a favor before things get busy latter on in the day.
They do not take cash or credit cards, so remember to bring a check or money order.

Relatively painless. I’ve come here on multiple occasions for apostilles, and the wait time wasn’t too bad. I did come early though (between 9 – 10 am). Something you should be aware of is that they don’t accept credit cards or cash here (for the time being). You must pay with a money order currently. Call ahead before you go, because the first time I went I used cash, and the second time I had to scramble for a money order because they were not accepting cash for some reason.