nothing for the notary
While most adoption agencies list a cost for having your documents notarized...there is no reason why you should have to pay a notary to certify your documents.
Even after four international adoptions, we have never paid a notary to sign our dossier document.
Our trick?
Using the notaries at the companies we frequent.
Most bank notaries are available free of charge to their customers. Just make sure you call ahead to make sure they're available.
We have also used notaries who work at our jobs. Most companies - even some smaller ones, have notaries. Just being an employee should get you a free pass on the fees, but if it doesn't, use your adoption story soften them up a bit.
That goes for doctor's offices too. With all of the medical forms that need to be signed for an international adoption, your doctor's office will become quite familiar with your documents...and with your story.
The key is to make sure you get it all done at once. Be prepared. Have all of the forms ready to sign at once. If you can get in and get out in one shot, chances are they won't charge you for the service.
6 comments:
So true! We never paid a cent for notarization...though I THINK that perhaps in Michigan they are not alowed to charge. In any case, we've used the notaries at our jobs...a friend who is a notary actually went with me to the doctor!
We have found it very helpful to have someone we know - who is available 24/7 to us - become a notary.
Also, our Secretary of State office will notarize documents for free if they are going to be apostilled (I assume they all do this but I would call and ask before you go). Obviously this doesn't work if you need to mail your documents for apostilling, but call your local SoS office and check to see if they do notarizing and apostilling. One trip to do it all saves time AND money! :)
Another good place to look for a notary is at church. We had a couple of ladies at our church that were notaries and the one we chose was willing to go to the doctor offices with us to notarize the doc's signature for our physicals. Love this site!
I agree, we never paid for a notary - not one time.
Hey thats true.. u dont have to pay for the notary...
Apostile
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