NOTARIAL SERVICES PERFORMED BY OUR CENTRE

• Authenticating official, Government and personal documents and information for use overseas
• Witnessing signatures of individuals to documents and authenticating identity
• Witnessing Powers of Attorney for use overseas, including preparing them
• Certifying true copies of documents for use overseas
• Certifying documents such as passports/driver’s license, birth certificates, marriage certificates, and death certificates.
• Verifying education records, qualifications, employment documents and medical reports and prescriptions
• Preparing ships’ protests and note and protest bills of exchange.
• For corporations and business, witnessing documents and authenticating status and transactions
• Dealing with documentation for land, property and deceased estates overseas

OTHER NOTARIAL FUNCTIONS

Often notarial functions may include the requirement for the preparation of legal documents, such as a power of attorney or an agreement encompassing and formalising a transaction. As a lawyer the notary is well qualified to carry out this legal work for the client as well as perform the notarial function.

LEGALISATION OF THE NOTARY’S SIGNATURE

In many instances the document/s to be sent overseas may require the signature and seal of the notary to be legalised by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Once DFAT has issued its certificate and indorsed or attached it to the notary’s document, the document may have to be certified at the Consulate or Embassy of the foreign country to which it is to be sent. The Consulate or Embassy is in effect certifying the Australian Government’s seal and signature on the document is correct.

The notary can usually help the client by explaining DFAT’s requirements and the requirements of the particular Consulate.

AUTHENTICATIONS v APOSTILLES

Foreign governments sometimes need proof the signatures of Australian officials on documents are genuine before they can be accepted. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) will certify that a signature, stamp or seal on an official Australian public document is genuine by checking it against a specimen held on file, and provide a certificate or stamp in the form of an ‘authentication’ or an ‘apostille’ stating certain facts. The authentication or apostille is then signed by DFAT staff and sealed with a wet and a dry seal.

*AUTHENTICATIONS

As a general rule, documents going to countries that are not party to the Hague Convention require an authentication. It is important to confirm the requirements with the foreign receiving authority as some countries impose specific requirements on how an authentication should be prepared. For example, you may not be allowed to have an Australian notary public certify your foreign document as a true copy for the purposes of having an authentication affixed. It may be required to be signed by their Embassy in Australia after DFAT has stamped it and their Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the capital city.

*APOSTILLES

As a general rule, countries that are party to the 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents require an apostille on documents that qualify as Australian public documents. A full list of countries that are party to this convention can be found at the Hague Conference on Private International Law website