Have Apostilles for US documents ever been useful?

Has anybody found that an Apostille was needed for US documents (Birth, Marriage, etc.) in the UK at any level (NHS, kid's school, motor vehicles, work, citizenship, etc.)?

An Apostille is a certification of official documents by an issuing authority in countries like the US & UK who have signed the The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents.  The Apostille is done because a foreign country may not immediately trust the authorities of a county & state they've never heard of.

http://www.state.gov/m/a/auth/c16921.htm

It's not too much of a pain for me to do.  I just need to send the documents to the Secretaries of State for each relevant state and pay $5-$10 per doc.  However if nobody on this board has ever been asked for this...

I got an Apostille for my Bachelors degree certificate when I applied to the UK university to do my Masters, but it turns out I didn't need it in the end.

The only thing I will warn you about is that if you don't want your original documents folded, include a correctly-sized return evelope when you send them. They basically mangled my degree certificate when they mailed it back to me because I didn't include a return envelope.

Thanks Anne!

I'm not sure this is necessary. I've never had to do it in the UK for anything: work, graduate studies and the like.

The only time I have had to do it is for immigration in the Netherlands.