christmasoompa

And London says they do in the checklist, but as several of us can attest, they will happily accept them even if not notarised. There was a recent poll on here and it was pretty much 50/50 as to who bothered to get stuff notarised I think.

I suspect that the reason London put that on the checklist is because they also process applications for Pakistan which has a high incident of visa fraud, so for a UK citizen it's not normally a problem, but they're probably stricter with people from other countries.

Almost Canadian

Uh oh! A Statutory Declaration can be declared before anyone that is a Commissioner for Oaths. Only a Notary Public can notarize documents. All solcitors are Commissioners, very few of them are Notary Publics.

AmyDavid

Oh all right clever clogs - he is right - I am not..:0)

Waggle

I would be careful here. If the PO is not a registered public notary then you may have trouble getting them accepted.

We got our documents (about 14 documents) fully notarized by a solicitor for £150, which at the time was very cheap compared with some of the rates being quoted!

Although I have heard London largely accepts plain photocopies and only requires notarizations of things like employment contracts. But better safe than sorry with regards matching exactly what they ask for on their checklist.

Wayne.

Waggle

Hmm like I said, better safe than sorry.

If you don't have to get the documents notarized why does the CHC London specific checklist explicitly state that all non-original documents must be notarized then?

Although people have gotten away with plain photocopies, it still gives them something which to the letter of the manual they can technically fail you on. Why take the risk?

Wayne.

Waggle

The solicitor that did ours was also a notary public.

Once again I guess it boils down to what London will 100% definitely accept, and then what they will "probably" accept and how much you want to risk it...

Wayne.

Waggle

It's the "you should send notarised copies unless otherwise stated" part which is the risk. Although London HAVE accepted plain photocopies in the past, it doesn't mean they have to. Bottom line is if you send plain photocopies you are not providing what they have asked for on their checklist.

Personally I'm glad we spent the £150 on getting everything notarized than get our application back when London decide they won't accept our documents (especially since our NOC 3131 has now reached the 1000 limit).

Wayne.

engineer80

We didn't get anything notarised apart from supplying them with a certified copy of a translation of my husband's birth certificate (he was born in Italy). We were also married in Italy and our marriage certificate is in Italian. We didn't bother getting this translated or notarised though since the birth certificate was officially translated into several languages including English on the back by the issuing registry office and had their stamp on it. We are waiting for med requests any time now and will let you know if all turns out well

Bucks_Family

We're happy with our "gamble".
Frankly the if you can't trust the Post Office, who verify documents for passport applications, then why should you trust a notary? The PO stamp the copies with the words
Plus some of our documents were not in English, and the statement "If your documents are not in Englsh or French, send a notarized (certified) translation with a copy of the originals" suggests they will accept certified translations of documents, so why not certified copies of English documents?
Effectively you're suggesting the Post Office is less capable of verifying documents than a notary? Yet they are considered trustworthy by the UK government for checking documents prior to a passport application. I know that might not cut much mustard with the Canadian government, but I can't see how they can trust the stamp of a notary any more than that of a PO official?

We'll see you over in Canada in the future, I'm sure!

Waggle

You may well be right. It's down to personal choice. For the sake of £150 (and you can apparently get them done even cheaper than that) we decided not to risk it.

If people wanna roll the dice and risk their application failing, even that small chance, just for a few quid on notarization, then be my guest!

Remember that everything will now be checked at CIO before it even gets as far as London. If some non-clued up clerk sees the words "everything must be notarized" and faces a bunch of plain photocopies - it may not even get passed the completeness check to an immigration officer for eligibility review at CIO, let alone to London visa office.

Yes if they are "clued up" they might know that London do accept plain photocopies. But I can see new members of staff at CIO going to the very letter of the checklist.

Wayne.

Waggle

On the contrary if it's worked the best of luck to you

We honestly hadn't considered the post office because it clearly said "notary public". But since it seems London accept even plain photocopies it is almost certainly ok.

But it's just the very small element of risk we didn't fancy

Wayne.

Almost Canadian

Because them's the rules of Canada

james.mc

We had our documents certified as 'True copies' by the Canadian Consul in Faro. The Canadian consul signed the copies and used the consul embossing stamp and a consul rubber stamp to boot. We're not in process yet, but I'm hoping CIC London will run with that. After all....


We did need to have a few documents translated, for example Portuguese PR. The translations were notarised by a notary public.

alcat2010

Ive just had a bit of a shop around and got quotes off several local solicitors, the prices range from £42 - £84 ....
£5 per sheet / certificate checked

The post office was a bit of a mystery

2 branches didnt even know they carried out the service... (even though it states on the website..)
And 1 branch said they will need bar codes on the certificates?? and they charge £7 for the overall service.... a bit too good to be true me thinks!

Will keep all posted on what I finally decide on

Bucks_Family

But you're talking about "plain" photocopies? That's not what we sent, we sent photocopies that were stamped and signed by a PO official with the statement "this is a true copy of the original document".

I don't recall the October 2009 London checklist using the term "Notary Public", only the word "notarized" and also the phrase "notarized (certified)".

Let's just agree to differ; the poll conducted on BE a few months back suggested about a 50:50 split between those who notarized everything and those who did something else, be it had them certified or did nothing at all.

Time will tell, but I will not lose any sleep now over something which I no longer have any control over. If I was to lose sleep over anything, it would be using the equity in the house as proof of funds rather than worrying about notarization against certification. I can't do anything about that now, I can't make the med requests arrive any faster, what I can do is get on with my life and wait for a letter to arrive - what will be in that letter? I'll worry about it when I open it.