Foreign Language Documents

From time to time, notaries public may be asked to notarize a document that will be sent overseas. This type of request is common with foreign adoptions and foreign real estate transactions. You can notarize any instrument of writing as long as the transaction isn't obviously fraudulent and the appropriate notarial certificate is specified. However, there are some things you should know and do when notarizing documents headed overseas:

In its simplest form, the term notario publico translates to notary public. On a deeper level, however, the difference between a notario publico and a U.S. notary public is vast, and therefore it can be problematic for notaries to use this particular terminology in the United States. While a notary public in the United States is authorized to perform specific notarial acts and practice limited discretion, a notario publico in many Latin American countries is an individual who has received the equivalent of a law license and who is authorized to represent others before the government.

I've had this question come up twice in the past couple of weeks, so I thought it would probably make for an interesting article. As notaries, we are approached to notarize documents for a number of different reasons.

One of the keys to acceptable and accurate notarizations is clear communication between the signer and the notary.