2FAST

Hi all,

1. I am in the process of submitting my Skilled PR Application. Do we have to certify our educational/birth/marriage certificates?

2. I completed the Additional Family Information form (IMM 5406). Do my spouse has to complete the same?

Thanks in advance for your time for sharing your valuable experience.

Regards,

Dibbsy

Hi 2fast

As far as I can recall EVERYTHING should be certified as a "True copy of the original". I did a deal with a local solicitor in the Uk to validate all of my copy documents for £50. Boy, did I get my money's worth.

I am pretty certain that my wife had to complete the Family info form.

Good Luck & maybe see ya soon.

proo

You should notarise everything which is not an original. You can go to a notary public in your local city who'll do it for free. You may have to make an appointment though.

Rich_007

Some people say that for London you don't need to have doc's notarized. Some people have got PR with same process.

But......

Why risk it, why have sleepless nights worrying if you did the right thing ?

Rich.

northernbird

Notary publics certainly don't do it for free. I notarised every last page of my application (153 pages) so that meant the solicitor putting his nice little red seal on every damn page and signing and dating. It took him over 4 hours at a cost of £160 per hour, ouch!! I think that is on the top end though and you may not pay that much near you. There is very much a difference of opinion on this forum about notarising documents. the checklist on the cic.gc.ca website states that everything except the police checks needs to be copied and notarised. the canada.org.uk states only employment contracts to be done. For my own piece of mind ( I am a right worry guts!) I stumped up the cash. It was entirely my personal choice.

With regards to the additional family form this is what cic say:

Additional Family Information (IMM 5406)
To be completed by:

You
Your spouse or common-law partner (whether accompanying you to Canada or not)
Your dependent children aged 18 or over (whether accompanying you to Canada or not)
It is very important that you list on this form any other children (even if they are already permanent residents or Canadian citizens) that you, your spouse or common-law partner or your dependent children might have who are not included in your Application for Permanent Residence. This includes

married children
adopted children
step-children
any of your children who have been adopted by others
any of your children who are in the custody of an ex-spouse, common-law partner or other guardian
You must answer all questions. If any sections do not apply to you, answer “N/A”.

Airseir

We found it cheaper to get new copies of my wifes divorce papers, new marriage licence and new birth cert than pay for a certified copy. Unfortunatly we thought the same for all accademic transcripts and certificates but that was not the case and cost us heavily (should have enquired of price first not just orderd them). Other documents were Notarised by an immegration lawer found in the yellow pages. Agian I failed to shop around nly having copies of passports and a couple of other things but it may be worth calculating how many documents you have in total and getting costs of notarisationa nd costs of new.

Cant remember if our attourney asked us to fill in for both or not but we completed additional family info for both of us. Better to give too much info than not enough.

Voyager970

Dibbsy

You are correct, everthing except police certificates and IELTS results must be notarised by a publc notary.
We had about 80 pages, took our lawyer nearly 2 hours to complete the notarisation.

Eddie

JAJ

The problem is that CIC throw around the word 'notarised' in a very generic sense. It's a lot cheaper in the UK to get a solicitor or JP (not necessarily a notary public) to make 'certified copies' of documents and it's never been clearly established whether CIC London will accept these.

Jeremy

Voyager970

Jeremy

The lawyer we used was a family friend, who advised me that you would be better to get a public notary to do docs. His notary seal had his name on it and he also said that he had to go on a special course and be certified to notarise docs.
I have seen threads that people have had their docs notarised by their bank manager, who I believe is authorised to notarise docs.

But as you say, CIC do not make it very clear !!!!!!!!

Guys always remember that Scots law is different from English law !!!!!!!

Eddie

JAJ

I don't know what CIC London will or will not accept, but for most purposes in the UK (including applying for Australian immigration) documents 'certified as true copies' by a solicitor or JP are accepted on a par with anything notaries do.

On the other hand, I would not be so confident with using bank managers, doctors, teachers, etc unless also a JP.

Jeremy

Platty

Que? I had no idea I had to do this

Jingle

Lots has been said about certifying/notarising etc etc. Lots of people have got their PR without having anything certified or notarised. We just did our reference letters from past employers and my Uni certificates. Everything else (apart from the CRB certificates, which were original) was just photocopied and sent as is.

I think you should do what you feel most comfortable with but having said that don't get screwed on the cost. Shop around. We paid £25 to have our documents colour copied, bound, sealed and signed off and it took him about an hour.

Jen

MarkG

If that was true, my application would have been rejected long ago. Certainly if you apply in the UK and have lived in the UK all your life, then odds are you don't need to get anything notarised... I don't know about other countries.