Notarized Vs Certified Copy

[Lace 0]

Been reading alot (who here hasn't ) and people seem to be using the words "Notarized Copy" and "Certified Copy". Maybe I'm reading too much into it but could any of you blame me? Is there a difference between the two? This is the impression I'm getting.

Notarized Copy: You take the orginal documents to a public notary. They make copies of it on their copy machine. Stamps it and signs it with their infomation and stables it. If the stable gets removed it's no longer a "Notarized Copy".

Certified Copy: Getting a copy of the document from the place that first issued it. It looks identical to the orginal or has a "copy" with the seal of the place that issued the orginal document.

Or is it:

You can't "Notarized" a copy. You can only "Notarized" a signature.

You can "Certified" a copy by adding the lines: "Copies of documents submitted are exact photocopies of unaltered documents and I understand that I may be required to submit original documents to an Immigration or Consular officer at a later date." Date, sign and print your name on it. Or do you have to fill out the FC-029?

It may seem like I'm nitpicking and I would perfectly understand if anyone thinks so but I received an email from a friend with the instructions on Packet 3 from the US Embassy In Cambodia. I rather give them whatever they want. They want an orginal AND certified/notarized copy? I'll give them 2. lol They are known to misspell things and such. Are Notarized and Certified Copy the same thing? Or is there no such thing as a "Notarized Copy"?

Requirements based on the email of instructions:

Birth Certificates: The original and a certified copy of your birth certificate is required.

Requirements based on AFFIDAVIT OF SUPPORT requirement.

Notarized copies of his or her latest federal income tax return;

[brnidokiegurl 0]

I went to the records dept and got a certified copy of a birth certificate then i took a another form to my work and the lady there notorized my signature (make any sense?)

[joeyjoey 1]

Been reading alot (who here hasn't ) and people seem to be using the words "Notarized Copy" and "Certified Copy". Maybe I'm reading too much into it but could any of you blame me? Is there a difference between the two? This is the impression I'm getting.

Notarized Copy: You take the orginal documents to a public notary. They make copies of it on their copy machine. Stamps it and signs it with their infomation and stables it. If the stable gets removed it's no longer a "Notarized Copy".

Certified Copy: Getting a copy of the document from the place that first issued it. It looks identical to the orginal or has a "copy" with the seal of the place that issued the orginal document.

Or is it:

You can't "Notarized" a copy. You can only "Notarized" a signature.

You can "Certified" a copy by adding the lines: "Copies of documents submitted are exact photocopies of unaltered documents and I understand that I may be required to submit original documents to an Immigration or Consular officer at a later date." Date, sign and print your name on it. Or do you have to fill out the FC-029?

It may seem like I'm nitpicking and I would perfectly understand if anyone thinks so but I received an email from a friend with the instructions on Packet 3 from the US Embassy In Cambodia. I rather give them whatever they want. They want an orginal AND certified/notarized copy? I'll give them 2. lol They are known to misspell things and such. Are Notarized and Certified Copy the same thing? Or is there no such thing as a "Notarized Copy"?

Requirements based on the email of instructions:

Birth Certificates: The original and a certified copy of your birth certificate is required.

Requirements based on AFFIDAVIT OF SUPPORT requirement.

Notarized copies of his or her latest federal income tax return;

I doubt that you can get the actual original of your birth certificate! A certified copy is all you can get.

Your I-134 will need you to have your signature notarized.

Notarized - Signatures are witnessed by an offical. The act of witnessing a signature is then noted by a "Notary" by crimping the paper with a seal or by using an ink stamp. Thus the term "notarized".

Certified copy - A representation of an official document and impressed or stamped with a seal making it a "certified" copy.

Edited March 4, 2007 by joeyjoey

[reach449 2]

Been reading alot (who here hasn't ) and people seem to be using the words "Notarized Copy" and "Certified Copy". Maybe I'm reading too much into it but could any of you blame me? Is there a difference between the two? This is the impression I'm getting.

Notarized Copy: You take the orginal documents to a public notary. They make copies of it on their copy machine. Stamps it and signs it with their infomation and stables it. If the stable gets removed it's no longer a "Notarized Copy".

Certified Copy: Getting a copy of the document from the place that first issued it. It looks identical to the orginal or has a "copy" with the seal of the place that issued the orginal document.

Or is it:

You can't "Notarized" a copy. You can only "Notarized" a signature.

You can "Certified" a copy by adding the lines: "Copies of documents submitted are exact photocopies of unaltered documents and I understand that I may be required to submit original documents to an Immigration or Consular officer at a later date." Date, sign and print your name on it. Or do you have to fill out the FC-029?

It may seem like I'm nitpicking and I would perfectly understand if anyone thinks so but I received an email from a friend with the instructions on Packet 3 from the US Embassy In Cambodia. I rather give them whatever they want. They want an orginal AND certified/notarized copy? I'll give them 2. lol They are known to misspell things and such. Are Notarized and Certified Copy the same thing? Or is there no such thing as a "Notarized Copy"?

Requirements based on the email of instructions:

Birth Certificates: The original and a certified copy of your birth certificate is required.

Requirements based on AFFIDAVIT OF SUPPORT requirement.

Notarized copies of his or her latest federal income tax return;

A notarizied copy of something is just affirming officially that YOU have signed whatever document. It just verifies that is is truly your signature.

A certified copy is a copy of a document, (Birth Certificate, Death Certificate, Marraige Certificate, etc.), that the copy is from the originating source, i.e. County Clerk's office or a goverment agency.

So long story short: Notarized document is verifying your signature; certified copy is an original copy from where the document was published.

Good Luck,

Randy

[Lace 0]

I think I'm starting to understand. Meaning you can't offically get a ""Notarized Copy" of things that doesn't have anything t sign. Example: You can' t get a "Notarized Copy" of your passport, birth certificate, tax returns as there's no space to actually sign and witnessed by a public notary. I can write anything I want and have my signature "Notarized" which offically says I'm the one that signed the document and public notary is the witness.

A certificate copy is a copy from the orginal source.

Back to the orginal confusion:

Requirements based on AFFIDAVIT OF SUPPORT requirement.

Notarized copies of his or her latest federal income tax return;

This should be "Certified Copy" which you can get from the IRS (orginal source). And I really can't take that anywhere and get a "Notarized Copy" of it can I? Nothing for me to sign and nothing for a public notary to sign. I guess I'm starting to understand. I hope I didn't confuse other people. Thanks for clearing it up guys. Googleing only confused me more.

[serendipitous 0]

OHhh that was definitely very helpful to me

[brnidokiegurl 0]

I work with legal papers, to do this one process if the person wants it done, they have to go to the court clerk and get a (certified) copy of the sentence or whatever is the case. They are certifying that this is a true copy of the original and the ct clerk or authorizing person will sign or initial unlike my birth certificate i think it says this is certified copy and the paper has some kind of special paper with underlying marks

[~Chad~ 0]

OHhh that was definitely very helpful to me

Me too. Learn something new everyday. God bless VJ!!!