Folinskyinla

Hi:

Excellent question.

But this is a tricky question becuase a U.S. "notary" is NOT the same as in other countries.

A "notary" is a person who receives a commission from their particular state to adminster oaths and withness signatures. In essense, there are two notarial acts -- the "jurat" where the notary says they placed the person under oath and they signed it in front of the notary. ["Sworn and subscribed before me."] The jurat is the one you see on the I-134 and I-864. It should be noted that the the "jurat" does NOT require that the notary verify the identity of the afficiant [at least here in California].

The other form of notarization is the "acknowledgement" which is where the notary has a person appear before them, verify their identity and tell the notary that the signature on the document is theirs [note it need not be signed in front of the notary -- it is possible to have a third person appear and acknowledge the signature of a third person]. This normally is not used in immigration work -- but you will see it on real estate documentation.

In many countries, a "Notary" has more responsiblities and is often akin to a "lawyer." For this reason, in California, it is ILLEGAL for a "Notary" to hold themselves out in Spanish as a "Notario". "Yo soy notoario" is illegal while "Yo soy notary" is just fine even if linquistically confusing.

BTW, an argument can be made that an I-864 need NOT be notarized because it contains the "magic language" for declarations under penalty of perjury. But that issue is not worth fighting.

dexy

In the U.K they are a "Commisioner of Oaths" I think.

sibsie

The UK also has Notaries which are a separate though not often used entity.