gibsonslanding

good news.....regardless of 'need things notarised/notarized or not', i've found a man, a notary public, who will do birth, marriage, passports etc. all verified, sealed, attached certs etc etc.....all for the grand price of £125 + vat....and this is for 9 documents to be done.......so outcome, going to get the lot done regardless of need and at least they are done......

it's total madness though, that you can't find the diffinite info on this one, either from the CHC, CIC or the foriegn office.......stupid to my mind.....you either do or you don't, right?.....

Emmjay

Okay, can i ask it says medical doctors for canada, but would not a medical doctor registered in UK be good enough.

I got my eductional certificates done when i was in Truro NS, but i did not get birth certificate, driving licence, passport and other documents done. I was going to ask my boss, as he is a Consultant Cardiologist, therefore, a medical doctor in UK and he agreed if it was acceptable.

Would this not be okay, should i maybe pay and get a solicitor to do them instead? So confusing.

Please advise

Emmjay

gibsonslanding

hi eemjay

all i can say is, that having spent the WHOLE DAY yesterday looking into this, my advice would be, get whatever you consider to be important done and to my mind, that would be birth certs, marriage certs, divorce certs, adoption certs, passports, educational certs etc....

find a notary public, not just a solicitor, as this is as sure that you can get, that it's all then covered.....the foriegn office make it quite clear that a notary is the important one.....for england anyway! not sure from inside canada, or scotland as they 'seem' to have a different opinion!!!! HOWEVER, it's not really about what's the right thing from the UK, it's more about what's acceptable for the receiving country and that's where the difficulty lies.....no definite info on this......if you are living in canada, a whole host of people are acceptable to use to get documents notarized but outside canada, there is again no definite info......having also spoken to the notary society in london, they are as high up as you can get, in confirming that documents are legitimate.......

so, i personally, have decided that i'm going to spend my money, get them done from a notary public and that's that.........done!

what is total madness in all this, is i can do others passport application forms because i teach part time and only have a city and guilds in teaching but legally, i can do that and have done so on many, many .....mad, mad, mad to my mind but there you go!

other posters have said that they only used photocopies, done by a solicitor, done by a bank manager etc etc......i can only give my own experience and i'm doing it my way....you must decide.....good luck. x

Emmjay

Hi Gibsonslanding

I have just today rung a solicitor in York who is on the list for "notary public". I have made an appointment to see him next Monday and have the rest of my documents done and he has quoted £120 for the lot.

I rang another solicitor and was quoted £75 per item or £200 per hour.

I was told it should not take more than twenty minutes to do, so i am going with the £120 for the lot. This was still more than i wanted to pay, but as you said get it done and over with - what an headache!!!

I always thought immigrating would be hard, but this is silly. My boss was quite happy to notarize everything for free, as he is a registered medical doctor in teh UK, but this apparantly is not good enough for CIC or PNP!!!!

Oh well never mind, it all comes out in the wash, as my mum says. Good luck with yours

Emmjay

jempee

Hi. Hope you get everything sorted out

Just wanted to say that we came to BC via PNP and did not get anything (other than a letter i got my ex husband to sign) notarised. We just sent in photocopies for everything for the PNP/PR and all was fine. Have not heard or spoken to anyone here that has come to BC that has had to get the documents notarised

Even had to get a copy of a police clearance from Germany for my husband that had to be translated. So i photocopied the original and wrote the translation on there ourselves. That was accepted no problems

seanyg

We had to get some educational certificates notarized for our PNP application. Luckily my mum used to be a lawyer so knows a few people still in the business, and one of them signed and stamped (with a general company stamp) my docs. I think they put something like "I certifiy this to be a true copy of the original".

We got PNP recently so it obviously passed muster

PS - If you know someone in the legal game, it's worth asking them - we didn't pay a penny!

skier

Hi all,

I was wondering if you could help us? We're about to send off all our documents, and are intending to get our solicitor to sign off photocopies of all our documents... Do we need to send off copies of the forms themselves (IMM0008, IMM5406, IMM 5476, IMM0008 Schedule 3) or do we send the orginals of these?

Just can't figure out if they mean the 'evidence' forms like certificates, or every single form??

Many thanks,

M & B.

englishrose1

I have recently sent off my application on the 5th December to be precise. I had all my documents notarized as that is what it stated on th high commission london website. However I know alot of people on this site have not had documents notarzed, and been issued with their visas. I decided not take any chances, and get them done at least there was no question that they were true and correct. As I said in my last post on this subject, notary publics as they are known in England, have their details logged around the world with all foreign governments. The governments around the world can then verify that your documents have been notarized by an a notary on the list. All there signatures are available for them to authenticate. ( My notary public told me this.)

I think that you may want to ask Jim Humphries his take on this, he is the one in the know, and I think we should have this as wiki subject so that others in the future can clarify what exactly is expected of them on this subject.

Jim Humphries

In my experience the following are common ideas and practices for submission of documents. One should carefully read the visa office-specific guide for instructions on what is required for that visa office. I am not a lawyer but below is my understanding and experience from my time as a visa officer.
1. Do not bother unless specifically asked for "certification" of a document.
2. Legalization is seldom requested or needed and is very involved.
3. Sometimes "Certified true copies" are requested. The notary makes a copy of an original document and certifies the copy as true with his or her signature and official seal. They are not certifying that the original document is genuine
4. Notarization refers to signing a document in front of a notary who then adds his or her signature as an officially recognized witness to the signature. It is seldom required or requested.
5. In Canada all lawyers are also notaries.
6. Some documents originate in countries outside the normal processing area of the visa office may be a problem and require closer scrutiny and perhaps authentication by the originating authority.