Notary Services Cost a Fortune

[Deleted]

I had to have two documents notarized - a request for a driving record, and an affidavit for my Bar application.
The only place to obtain U.S. notary services in Shanghai is at the American consulate. $100 later, I have my two notarized signatures :-|

And a grant total of $230 later my three sets of documents including the notarized ones are off to the U.S. to arrive on the 11th. :-(

Notary services cost about $15, sometimes $20 in the U.S. More than doubling the price seems a bit ridiculous to me.

[potatopie]

That sucks! Amazingly, it's free here at most post offices.


ETA: Wait, is there any difference between notarizing and certifying? It's just to say this is a legit copy, right?

[aMrsin09]

Are we talking the notarizing with an embossed seal that says this is a real document (or a real copy of a valid document)?

For my immigration paperwork I paid $2.00 a "seal" at my local UPS store in the states.

[Deleted]

Like publius said, I'm pretty sure they aren't the same thing. I believe (could be wrong) that it has to do with the validity of the signature and also the "seriousness" of the information in the document being signed. Not sure if I'm explaining that well or if that makes sense outside of my head.

and publius, I had the same thought - I wonder if there is a rule that U.S. notarizations can only occur at consulates or embassies? Otherwise I would think someone would have tried to corner this market already.

[Deleted]

Wikipedia says this about notaries: "A notary public (or notary or public notary) in the common law world is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business. A notary's main functions are to administer oaths and affirmations, take affidavits and statutory declarations, witness and authenticate the execution of certain classes of documents, take acknowledgments of deeds and other conveyances, protest notes and bills of exchange, provide notice of foreign drafts, prepare marine or ship's protests in cases of damage, provide exemplifications and notarial copies, and perform certain other official acts depending on the jurisdiction."

[Cheesecake]

I'm still debating becoming a US notary myself. A couple of my cousins are, because it really is super cheap and easy to become one and it's useful.

I know DH's (Dutch) company opened a US office and they had to have a company stamp (they are an internet company, are completely paperless and don't use stamps!) and get the offical company paper and stamp notarized before they were allowed to open up their office in the US. (No idea why, they just had to.)

Obviously in NL the only way to get any/everything done quickly is by paying a shitload. So now they have a box of paper and a stamp they never use, but it has been notarized! (Which was as expensive as you say, which is why I'm thinking of becoming one.)

[Deleted]

I don't know if this is true in Europe, but a lot of US banks (if you're a customer) will notarize for free.

[frlcb]

If you are doing something in the US, like selling a house for example, and you can't be there and someone goes to the closing for you, you would have to get a form notarized saying you allowed this, and when you live overseas they only accept notarizations from the US Embassy or Consulate. We went through this and it is a pain.

[travelingturtle]

we had to get something notarized when we sold our house. it wasn't a form to have someone go in for me, i don't remember what it was specifically now. i think it was just a form saying that i'm ok with selling the house. anyway, i was able to get it notarized using a local (german) notary. he said the paperwork could go through a process where the notary office in our city contacts the US Consulate to verify that he's legit since there's no way for it to be verified in the US any other way. I didn't do that and everything was ok.

At another point in our selling process (maybe when we actually sold the house?), I did go to the consulate because I didn't want to risk it.

[allibally]

It was really expensive in Switzerland. I want to say around $150. And if you have an emergency they are a total pain in the ass towards you because you need an appointment! *sigh* I just found the copy of mine and that flooded up some memories of that day. Good times haha

[jennybee1018]

I had to get some paperwork notarized here at the US Embassy. It's 50 USD here in Doha too so I guess that's the going rate for Intl notary. Sucktastic!

[americaninoz]

I was told I had to get a bunch of doc's notarized here for my Aussie citizenship app, then I get there and they said 'oh you don't need any of this - we just take copies & mark that we've seen the orginal' *sigh*
luckily there's a guy at my work who does it for free, so I didn't have to pay anything
but STILL - it was their help line who told me I needed that stuff!

[bail229]

Jan 9, 2013 10:05:55 GMT -5 frlcb said:

If you are doing something in the US, like selling a house for example, and you can't be there and someone goes to the closing for you, you would have to get a form notarized saying you allowed this, and when you live overseas they only accept notarizations from the US Embassy or Consulate. We went through this and it is a pain.

This is what I had to do and it was such a pain! It cost like $75 a page or something ridiculous!
You can get certified copies of things here by a justice of the peace which would be free, DH is one

[azure]

We can get certain documents notarized here for free at the town hall otherwise at the notary public it's 50 euro a stamp.

[crimsonandclover]

Jan 9, 2013 10:21:31 GMT -5 travelingturtle said:

we had to get something notarized when we sold our house. it wasn't a form to have someone go in for me, i don't remember what it was specifically now. i think it was just a form saying that i'm ok with selling the house. anyway, i was able to get it notarized using a local (german) notary. he said the paperwork could go through a process where the notary office in our city contacts the US Consulate to verify that he's legit since there's no way for it to be verified in the US any other way. I didn't do that and everything was ok.

At another point in our selling process (maybe when we actually sold the house?), I did go to the consulate because I didn't want to risk it.

Notary in Germany =/= notary in the US. A notary in German is a specialized lawyer. They go to school for several years. In the US, depending on the state, you either have to take classes or you don't and you basically just have a stamp and a record book (where you record everything you stamped) to show that some things are real (like that you witnessed someone signing an affidavit, for example).
However, as someone else mentioned, in the US there is a residency requirement. I had looked into becoming a notary over here (I mean a US notary but here in Germany) but as far as I could see, it's not possible.

[travelingturtle]

Yeah, the notar here is no joke. It's hard to explain the seriousness of the profession here to my friends in the us with that qualification. Either way, the document I needed notarized from the us was fine with me using a German notar and there sseemed to be a system in place for those who can't get things notarized by a us notary. I didn't have any issues so not sure if it would've worked. He ad dine it before, though.