The purpose of document authentication is to certify the validity of the signature on a legal document, the authority of the signature on the document and identify the stamp or seal on said document.

Anyone traveling or moving to another country. Examples may be:Individuals or families relocating due to a job, Corporations opening new branches or offices in other countries, Teachers who will be teaching ESL in foreign countries, Individuals who need to present US issued documents to Government Authorities in another country.

Yes, we value our clients' confidentiality. Your information will always be handled in a safe and secure manner.

The answer depends on the state where you reside and for which country you need the document.

Florida is one of the few states in which a notary can solemnize marriage between a bride and groom. Completion of the marriage certificate portion of the marriage record is not the same act as performing the marriage ceremony, which is required by Florida law. When a notary completes the Certificate of Marriage section on a FL marriage license, the notary is certifying that they performed the required ceremony, So for a notary to "sign and stamp" the marriage license without conducting the required ceremony, would be an unlawful act. The ceremony does not have to be elaborate, but there must be an agreement by words of present assent. The words used or the ceremony performed are mere evidence of a present intention and agreement of the parties. Document Authentication and Notary Services does not perform wedding ceremonies or sign and notarize marriage licenses.

People get the terms certified and attested confused. Certified Copies If a document: is a vital record, or, is a public record, and, a copy can be made by the custodian of that public record, that copy is called a certified ("true") copy. Certified copies are only obtained from the custodian of that record. This is a list of documents for which you'd have to go to the custodian of that document to get a certified copy. Birth Certifcate must obtain "certified copy" from Office of Vital Records. Marriage Certificate must obtain "certified copy" from Office of Vital Records. Death Certificate must obtain "certified copy" from Office of Vital Records. Certificate of Citizenship or Naturalization must obtain "certified true copy" from DHS/CIS. Document filed in a court proceeding. Document recorded by the Clerk of the Court mortgages, deeds, etc must obtain certified copy from Clerk of Courts. Documents maintained by government offices. Student records-kept in public education offices must have notarized signature of registrar. Federal or state income tax forms already filed. Professional licenses issued by the State of Florida. Document for which a photocopy is prohibited

If a document: is NOT a public record, or is NOT a vital record in Florida, another state, a territory of the U.S., or another country, or is a public record, but the custodian can not make copies [F.S. §117.05(12)(a)] a FLORIDA notary can make attested photocopies of the document. The following are examples of these documents: Florida Driver's Licenses, Florida Vehicle Titles, Social Security Cards, Diploma School, Standard Award, etc, Transcripts from PRIVATE educational institutions Medical Records, U.S. Passport, Bill of Sale, Contract, Lease Agreement, Resident Alien Card issued by the U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Personal Letter, Notarizing Your Own Documents.

If you are a notary yourself and you're tempted to notarize your own documents (like a lease, power of attorney, Notary Attestation Forms, etc. Don't. It's unlawful. [F.S. §117.05(1)] The notary also can not notarize the signature of their spouse, son, daughter, mother, or father.[F.S. §117.107(11)]. Also be careful of forms provided by title companies to obtain notary information in conjunction with a real estate closing. May times it appears that the title company has a space to imprint a notarial seal on this "information" page. Just applying your seal to this page could be a violation of notary law since they ask you, as a notary, to also sign the form. This could be construed as notarizing your own signature. The seal must be used for an official notarial act with a proper notarial certificate.

The notarial act is not one of signing and stamping documents. Notarial certificates are statements which are preprinted on the document or put on the document if one does not already exist), describing the notarial act. If a preprinted notarial certificate is not on the document, the signer has two options: a) ask the person who authored the document to identify the correct type of notarial act, or, b) the signer can identify which certificate type they desire after having them described by the notary. The required elements of a notarial certificate in Florida are: the venue state and county of notarization type of notarial act acknowledgment, jurat, attested copy, etc. personal appearance of the signer "before me" date of notarization names of persons whose signature is being notarized type of identification relied upon ID numbers are not required by statute.

Notary's official seal Also, the notary must interact with the signer to a) assess the signers cognitive state, and, b) to administer an oath or acknowledgment. Simply remaining silent and signing and stamping paper is not the function of a notary. Notarizations have been deemed invalid in cases where a notary didn't administer an oath or take an acknowledgment, as required. As you can see, for documents to be properly notarized in Florida, all these elements must exist. If they don't, the document could be declared invalid in a court of law or rejected when attempting to have your document authenticated by the Department of State for presentation overseas. For a notarization to be valid, it must be complete. [FL Statute §117.05(13)]

What Could Constitute the Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL) Many requests are made of notaries without the general public understanding the limited roles notaries play. Unless the notary is a licensed attorney, they can not draw up, modify existing, add to, subtract from, suggest client wording on, or recommend that there be witnesses to a document. All these acts would be considered acting in the capacity of an attorney and therefore engaging in the unlicensed or unauthorized practice of law (UPL). Once a notary is found out "assisting" in this capacity, there are heavy fines and worse. Notaries are authorized to identify the signer and fill out a notarial certificate to that fact. The contents of the document is determined by the parties to the document and has nothing to do with the notarial act. Documents are drawn up for many purposes, some needing correct legal wording to enable them to be enforceable in a court of law and only a licensed attorney can do that. Typically, documents establish an understanding or agreement between parties and a notary public couldn't possibly know what those conditions are in order to make recommendations to its wording or the wording entered by the respondent. Notaries who do contribute their input on documents could be acting in a UPL capacity, setting the parties to the document up for disaster as well as themselves. Questions about the content of a document should always be addressed to the person who gave you the document to act upon or a licensed attorney. [Governor's Reference Manual for FL Notaries, 2001, p13, 14] Another example of unauthorized practice of law would be for a non-lawyer notary to take a deposition in Florida. Giving the deposition oath is a notarial act, however. Once the oath is given to the deponent, the attorneys conduct the deposition itself.

Certifying the contents of safe-deposit boxes Yes. A notary is authorized and required to be present for the opening of the safe-deposit box. Remember, prior conditions have to be met prior to opening a safe-deposit box. The law authorizing notaries to perform this function became effective on July 3, 1992. [FL Statutes §655.94(1)].

Since notaries can not notarize their own signatures, any document on which the witnesses signatures must be notarized (eg self-proving affidavits) precludes the notary from performing in this capacity. Since the notary can not notarize the signatures of their spouse, father, mother, son or daughter, [FS §117.107(11)] it precludes these relatives from standing in as witnesses as well. This is problematic on self-proved wills, where by statute, witness must take an oath in the presence of the testator and have their signatures notarized. [FS §732.503(1)] The solution is to identify friends, neighbors or coworkers to help as witnesses. For those situations where the witness signatures are not required to be notarized (like mortgages), the notary can, and often does, assist in this role. When this is the case, one would need to identify another impartial witness if two witnesses are required. The witnesses should print their name under their signature. The notary should request a copy of their identification to identify the witness. There will be some documents which require witness signatures which are not notarized, but for which the drafter of the document (eg attorney) explicitly states they do not want the notary to act in this capacity if they will also be notarizing the signature of the principal. They are the best people to determine this since they usually have knowledge regarding local statutes or might be aware of judicial situations which preclude the notary acting both as a witness and the notary on a document. It's always up to the custodian of the document or the person who drafted the document to decide who they want as witnesses, or who might be excluded from performing in this capacity.