Notarized, Certified and Authenticated - 3 terms you will get to know and love (or hate, very possibly) over the next few months
(Please note: The explanation that follows was written by a World Child client from the state of Connecticut. We decided to leave it as written to give you the information from the perspective of a "lay person" as he puts it, coming into this process with little or no experience with this authentication process.)
Almost immediately upon beginning your adoption journey, more specifically the paperchase portion, you will come across 3 magic words. They are, of course, Notarize, Certify and Authenticate (and variations thereof).
I am by no means an expert, but as someone who had not a clue what these little terms of endearment meant when we started, let me give you a lay-person's explanation.
First and foremost, only the documents included in your dossier need to go through this somewhat arduous process.
Every document you include in your dossier, with the exception of the pictures you include, must be notarized, certified and authenticated.
One clarification to the above statement: You will receive some documents already state certified; that is, they will have the raised seal of the state from which they originated on them. Birth certificates, marriage certificates and divorce decrees are the most common documents that come this way. Because they are already state certified, these documents do not need to be notarized. In essence, they have already bypassed the notary level. If you have any questions at all, or are unsure if this affects any of your documents, contact World Child.
Notarization:
OK, let's start at the beginning (clever concept, huh?). Let's use the Letter to the CCAA of Intent to Adopt as our example document. As you probably know by now, in this case, you type this document up yourself. Once completed, print it out. In most states, the documents that ultimately end up in your dossier require a "live" signature. All that means is that a real live person has to sign it. A copy of a signed document won't do (though there is a way to handle those - click here for more info). There are exceptions to this rule (Pennsylvania and Ohio, for example). Check with us if you are unsure.
In most cases, who should sign the document is obvious. In our example, the adoptive parents sign. Your employer would sign the letter of employment, your doctor will sign the letter of good health. Someone from your bank would sign your deed to your house. Your accountant, or you yourself, might sign your financial statement. I think you get the idea.
Once signed, the document must now be notarized. Technically, it is supposed to be signed in the presence of the notary. It's easier if you can have the same notary do as many of your documents as possible, as this can, in some cases, make the next step (certification) easier.
Before using a notary, verify the date his/her commission expires. If you are unsure what this means, ask the notary. He/she will understand. China has been very particular on notaries in the past (in China, they are like attorneys). Don't use a notary whose commission expires before you are likely to return home with your child.
Many states require that the county in which the notary is certified also certify the document prior to going to the Secretary of the State. Therefore, if you have many notaries from many counties, you may increase the amount of running around you must do. More about this in the Certification section.
When a document is notarized, all that happens is the notary stamps a seal on the document (with a little device that looks something like a nutcracker), and then the notary signs and dates the document. Sometimes a notary will use a gold seal which just makes it look fancier! So, at this point, using our example above, you still have one piece of paper that is signed by you, stamped with the notary's seal, and signed and dated by the notary. So far, so good.
IMPORTANT: Make sure the notary you use is recognized by the Secretary of the State's Office (and a state county, if mandated by the state), or this will all be for naught. You can call and ask the Secretary of State's office to verify if you have any questions.
Batching of Documents for Certification and Authentication
Usually, each dossier document should be certified and authenticated separately. However, under certain circumstances, documents can be 'batched' together to be certified and authenticated as one document. You can 'batch' two documents together in the following situations:
Certification:
Once all your documents are notarized, they must be certified by the Secretary of State's Office in the state in which the document originated. This is a very important point. If you live in Connecticut (as we do), and were born in Pennsylvania (as I was), you must have your birth certificate notarized and certified by Pennsylvania.
Fortunately, most states are well aware of how this works, so you simply have to call them early, and be specific about what you need. Make it clear that this is for an adoption from China. Be sure to ask for the Great Seal of the State, not an apostille, which is used only for documents going to countries that haven't signed a special Hague treaty, e.g. Russia (that's probably more info than you wanted to know, but the distinction is important).
There is a service called VitalChek (800-255-2414) that you can use to order most documents for a very reasonable fee (about $4 to $6 each).
Early on in the process, call the Bureau of Vital Statistics at the Office of the Secretary of the State for the state in which you live (Laura Morrison's home page has a complete complete list). Let them know what you are doing, and ask if there are any special requirements for the particular state. I found the people at the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Connecticut to be of tremendous help.
As mentioned above, be aware that some states have an additional step where the county in which the notary is licensed must also certify the documents before they go to the Secretary of State.
These states include the following:
The contact at the Secretary of State's Office should help you with this if you have any questions.
We, for example, were incredibly lucky to have a fantastic contact at the Secretary of State's Office in Connecticut, who helped us through the certification process.
There is usually a charge of anywhere from $5 to $20 per document for the certification.
Ok, so what does certfication actually mean? Well, it's pretty simple really. Certification means that the Secretary of State's Office attaches a separate document to each of your notarized documents that says something like "The Great State of (whatever) recognizes that ... yada, yada, yada". This document has the State seal on it (usually gold colored, and fairly elaborate), and is signed by the Secretary of the State.
I cannot stress enough how important, and helpful it is to make contact with the Secretary of State's office early on in the process. Realize also that you may have to do this with several states, if for example, you were born in one state, married in another, and currently live in a third.
If you send your documents by mail to be certified, put them together in an envelope, include a cover letter and a list of everything that's included. I strongly advise sending them by Federal Express, the US Postal Service Air Express, or some other overnight delivery service that allows you to track the status of your package. Don't forget to include a money order to cover the processing fee. I also strongly suggest including a prepaid, self-addressed air bill for them to send back to you.
State Specific Web Sites with Certification Information
As specific states develop their own web sites with certification information, we will add those links here. If you have documents that need to be certified by any of these states, it's a good idea to check the site specific to that state, just in case they have any different / additional requirements.
Authentication:
Ok, now, the final step. You take all your certified documents, put them together neatly, include a cover letter and a list of everything that's included, as well as a money order to cover the charges. As of December 1999, to the best of our knowledge, the charge for Authentication by the Chinese Consulate is $20 per document.
Send the package by some kind of trackable, overnight service - FedEx, USPS Air Express, UPS, etc., to the Chinese Consulate that handles your state. As mentioned above, the Assistant Stork (Laura Morrison), again comes through here, with a list of all the Consulates.
The consulate should take anywhere from 5 to 10 business days to process your documents. I strongly suggest including a prepaid, self-addressed air bill for them to send back to you.
Important: The Consulates are jurisdictional, meaning that each has jurisdiction over, and services only certain states (see the Assistant Stork for a complete list of consulates and the states they service).
Therefore, each document must be authenticated by the Consulate that has jurisdiction over the state from which the document originated (that sounds a lot more complicated than it really is).
As an example, let's say you currently live in Virginia, but you were born in San Francisco. Most of your documents (your homestudy, letters of employment, good health, etc.) would have to be authenticated by the Washington D.C. Embassy (which has jurisdiction over Virginia). However, your birth certificate needs to authenticated by the San Francisco Consulate, which has jurisdiction over northern California.
Important: The
following states also need to have their documents authenticated
by the State Department, because they fall under the jurisdiction
of the China's Washington D.C. Embassy:
There is an excellent courier service available through The Assistant Stork for these documents.
Authentication, at least in New York (the Consulate which handles Connecticut) simply involves stamping the Secretary of State's certification on both sides with a couple of Chinese stamps. In our case, the stamp on the front was red and the stamp on back was blue. There is a date ("98" in our case) and a sequence number at the top, a signature and a date at the bottom, and a chop. Verify that each has a signature, or the document may be rejected by China. Click here to see what the seal looks like.
Back to our initial example, when you receive your authenticated docs back, you will have your original Letter of Intent, signed and notarized, a letter of certification from the Secretary of the State, which is stamped on both sides by the Chinese Consulate.
IMPORTANT:Beginning in 1998, there is an extra wrinkle thrown in, as China is putting a 6 month expiration on notarial validity for many documents in your dossier, including marriage certificates, financial statements, letters of good health and police checks. But before you get too upset, be aware that the way the CCAA is calculating the 6 months should result in this affecting very few families. Click here for an explanation of how this is calculated to help determine if you will be affected.
