Posted by Pamela Franckowiak on 10/14/11 12:44pm
Msg #400526

Apostille Notary

Have any of you gone on to be Apostille Notaries (used for international signings; dual citizenship; closings if signer is in another country, etc)?

If so, what's your experience, was it worth the training, course & certification, and what kind of work has been coming your way? I'm in the greater Chicago area.

Reply by Shoshana/AZ on 10/14/11 12:55pm
Msg #400534

In AZ no such thing as an Apostille Notary.

No special training here. Just any notary who knows the proper procedure can do it. Check with your SOS.

Reply by Sylvia_FL on 10/14/11 1:00pm
Msg #400537

Not sure exactly what an "Apostille notary" is.

But I do apostille services.
Didn't have to have any special training or certification for it.
You have to be aware whether the document requires an apostille or a certificate of notarial authority. In some cases after receiving the CNA I have to then send the document to the Dept of State in Washington DC for authentication and sometimes on to the appropriate embassy for legalization.

Who is doing this training and certification course??? (sounds like an NNA thing to get more money)

Reply by Pamela Franckowiak on 10/14/11 1:08pm
Msg #400538

If you weren't trained as an Apostille, how did you attain your seal and how can you be certain of authentication and any other federal requirements?

Reply by Shoshana/AZ on 10/14/11 1:17pm
Msg #400540

I don't think you know what you are talking about.

The notary can, as a service to the customer, take the document to the SOS office (they have the seal and the authority) for an Apostille.
We notaries ARE MERE MORTALS. As such, we do not have that authority!

Reply by Sylvia_FL on 10/14/11 1:22pm
Msg #400542

Pamela
No one is trained as an apostille. An apostille is a certificate that is attached to the notarized document by the Secretary of State.There is no such thing as an apostille seal!
The apostilles or certificates of notarial authority are provided by the appropriate Secretary of state.
When I send the documents with the application they attach the apostille or certificate of notarial authority depending on what is needed, then they return the document to me.
If the target country is a member of the Hague Convention then the document gets an apostille, if it isn't a memberof the Hague Convention then it gets a Certificate of Notarial Authority.
When I get the documents back, those with a CNA I send off to the Department of State with a request for authentication. Then, as I said, in some cases they have to be sent to the appropriate embassy for legalization. For example, a document I just took care of is going to end up in Vietnam. I sent the notarized document to the Florida Secretary of State for a CNA, when they returned it to me I sent it to the Department of State, when they have authenticated it I have to send it to the Vietnamese embassy for legalization.

I do several of these a week.

Reply by Pamela Franckowiak on 10/14/11 1:28pm
Msg #400543

Wow, what a process - and thank you for the inside edition. I am in the information gathering about this. A friend of mine needed it and asked me about it. I had not heard of it and am interested in conducting these. I have been a notary for about 20 years, but only used it within the company I worked for and for friends. It has just been in the last year that I have begun doing signings, certified as a signing agent, and have begun this business independently. I am targeting retiring from my "day job" soon and would like to become more involved with my notary business. I would appreciate having further discussions with you on the subject - maybe a call some evening?

Reply by Sylvia_FL on 10/14/11 1:35pm
Msg #400545

Pamela
There is really nothing to discuss on the subject.
If you get requests for these the person making the request will know what they need.
There is no training manual out there. I had to do some "leg work" to find out what the various embassies needed for legalization for those documents that needed the legalization step.

I am curious why you asked about the training course for this, as far as I know there is no training for it.

Reply by Sylvia_FL on 10/14/11 2:59pm
Msg #400553

Curious

I see that there are "training courses" for "Apostille agents"

What on earth can they teach you? How to send a cover letter to the SOS office??
Only the SOS can issue an apostille.

Reply by Sylvia_FL on 10/14/11 4:37pm
Msg #400563

Also

They are also time consuming.
Unless you are able to walk the doc to the SOS office it takes a couple of weeks to get the document back. Then if it has to go to the DOS office for authentication it takes a couple of months. It takes approx 4 weeks to get to the authentications office at the DOS as all mail goes through irradiation process - all mail is checked for foreign substances and explosives, then all names within the document are sent to the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be compared with watch-lists. After that, the documents are sent to the authentication group for processing. Document authentications take a back seat to all other processing at the DOS.

I am still waiting for docs to be returned that I sent to the DOS at the beginning of August.

Reply by NJDiva on 10/14/11 11:11pm
Msg #400603

Sylvia, you're the best! n/m

Reply by Buddy Young on 10/14/11 4:26pm
Msg #400562

Re: Great answer, Sylvia. Noone could have said it better n/m

Reply by Notarysigner on 10/14/11 4:46pm
Msg #400567

they won't answer, hidden agenda would be my guess. n/m

Reply by Patti Corcoran on 10/15/11 5:47am
Msg #400615

Re: There are pros on this sight

and Sylvia is most definitely one of the best! Thank you Sylvia for always sharing your wisdom.

Reply by Claudine Osborne on 10/15/11 9:48pm
Msg #400670

Re: There are pros on this sight

Wow.. Sylvia..What a discussion! You are simply amazing..Thank You!