cindyabs

Does anyone know (Folinskaya this means you, ) of a US source (must be US NOT UK) notary in London OTHER than the US Embassy? 30 bucks for one notarization charge thru the embassy seems a bit excessive........I'll be over in UK visiting my husband in just over 3 weeks (YIPPEE) and we have a day in London before we head out to Cornwall.
Thanks in advance

Folinskyinla

Hi:

I don't know the answer to your question. BTW, part of me wonders if a US notary has the power to act in the UK. The question makes me nervous.

Rob S

Good question, I don't have an answer save that it is 'probably not' allowed. English law requires lawyers to have insurance (as I'm sure does US law for US lawyers) - I doubt a US notary could obtain such insurance. Certainly they would have to be both English and US licensed.

My guess is that the reason the embassy provides a Notary service is because none other is available. Keeping in mind that London is wall to wall lawyers.

cindyabs

Having said that, aren't lawyers able to perform notorial service? God knows over here we're crawling with notaries, so no need to go to a lawyer. I just thought 30 bucks for one notarization and 20 bucks for each sucessive document was a bit steep....We need to do this so that he can file a W7 for the IRS.

Rob S

Yes and No...

An English solicitor can notorize documents... but the US Embassy in London will not accept it. They specifically require a US notary.

Folinskyinla

No, lawyers in the US can NOT notarize documents unless they are also a notary.

In fact, it is illegal in California for a Notary to use the Spanish "Notario" because it is confusing.

A notary has no special qualifications -- pass a simple exam, give fingerprints. no felony convictions and post a performance bond. Quite easy to do, just a pain in the rear end. I used to be a notary and abandoned it a long time ago.

cindyabs

Thanks, just wondered if those US lawyers you mentioned in the UK could perform said service?

Pete

Couple of Points here and a suggestion..
The Official act of the US notary to be valid, I suspect has to be on
American Ground.. The Embassy in the UK is such a place. Outside of the
embassy, the only other place that would be classed as American ground would
be a US airforce base in the UK.. It may be worth while locating one (used
to be one I think at Hendon in London) and asking if there is a Notary
there.. I would think there would be.

Just our thoughts..

Pete

Pulaski

You could also try a US bank in London as it seems to be common practice, in the US at least, to have a notary "on site".

Having said that, I think that you'll find $30 quite good value and comparable to the commercial rate for a notary's services.

ukemigrant

Are you sure the US Embassy in London will be charging for notarisation of any visa-related documents? My USC wife got her I-864 notarised in Belfast and was not charged anything because it was for immigration purposes.

Sam.

rogerpenycate

Hi,
My 2p worth.
I had to have a Spanish police report notarized, which I had translated into English.
This was done by an English solicitor for (I think 20 Pounds - no pound sign on this keyboard)
I suppose it depends on the document you need notarizing.
At the end of the day the 30 pounds that the embassy quoted is not excessive, and for piece of mind it may be worth going with that.

Pulaski

(i) the original request was specifically for a US notary

(ii) the cost is $30, not £30, and

(iii) if you hold down the <Alt> key, then type 156 on the side number pad (not the keys across the top of the keyboard) a "£" will appear (also Alt130 gives "é", and Alt171 & 172 give "½" and "¼". There are many other useful symbols "hidden" this way.

Back to the orginal query - if you take the original document and the copy with you to your interview, the copy doesn't have to be notarised in advance.

cindyabs

This is for the IRS, not INS so technically it's not visa related. It's the W7 we are all supposed to file for for our spouse for a tax payer ID number BEFORE they get their social security number. Since he's in UK and me here, I do have to list myself on taxes as married and account for him somehow. So have to do the form and they require it to be accompanied with a US notarized NOT UK motarized copy of birth certificate or passport........A major pain.........But I gotta say I think charging 30 bucks for one document to be notarized is a rip off. Someone earlier in this thread had said it's a bargain.........maybe in UK, but surely not in US where you can get it done for free sometimes........

Squire

In article , Pulaski
writes

    >(iii) if you hold down the key, then type 156 on the side number
    > pad (not the keys across the top of the keyboard) a "£" will
    > appear (also Alt130 gives "é", and Alt171 & 172 give "½" and "¼".
    > There are many other useful sybols "hidden" this way.

However this presupposes that not only the recipient's software
recognises those symbols outside of the first 127 characters of US
ASCII, but also that the many and varied news servers around the world
via which usenet postings are transported are also similarly capable.
Where such a symbol is not recognised it usually shows as a black
rectangular blob or blobs.

Many therefore regard it as clearer to use ISO standard 4217 e.g.-

GBP - pound sterling
CAD - Canadian dollar
ZAR - South African rand etc etc

To some extent the first 2 letters are similar to the country of origin
plate on vehicles (hence GB and not UK). The 3rd letter usually
indicates the currency - P for pound, D for dollar, R for rand in the
examples above.




--
squire
Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. (Groucho)

Pulaski

Very interesting and absolutely correct. These codes are used around the world in banking, however they are not in common usage in the public domain and, to be honest you are not going to get Canadians to use "CAD", the Japanese to use "JPY", or the Thai's to use THB any time soon.

Under the circumstances knowing how to bring up a £ symbol on a US computer is of more interest and use as it, and the other characters, can also be used in Word/WordPerfect documents as well as e-mail and other software used in North America and Europe.