I need to get a Taiwanese Police Certificate translated into English and notarized by a local Taiwanese notary. I have searched the forums but cannot find anything that helps in this regard.
You can get an English version of the police certificate, which would allow you to avoid the need for translation. It doesn’t cost much either, maybe NT$100. This was in Taipei City, and just a few months ago.
You can also ask the local court about notarial services. If they don’t do it, they should at least have a list of notaries in the area.
AIT has notary services. Need to make appointment.US$50 per each document to be notarized.
Ouch, that’s about $1500 NT. Last time I checked, the court notary in Xindian charged $750 (for certification, not notarization) and accepted walk-ins.
I’m trying to get it certified / authenticated by AIT, but AIT said they only verify the Taiwan notary signature. I’ve never gotten a Taiwan Police Cert before. Does the English version already come with a notary signature on it that AIT can verify?
It comes with a stamp, as does any official form, but I doubt that the stamp means it’s been notarized.
Isn’t the notarizing required to authenticate the translation? In that case, if you get the English document from the police, then no notarizing would be needed.
AIT stated they can only verify a notary 's signature. So it is looking like I need to get the Chinese version, get it translated and notorized. sheesh, government bureaucracy.
Need a notary? There’s an app for that called Notarize.
Correction. AIT will notarize US documents, but it is US$50 per signature, not per document. I know because I just sold a house in the US. Title company would not use an online notary for the contract, and I had to go to AIT in Tapei.
One 14-page document requiring 12 signatures. Total price: US$600.
WHAT?! Yea, it’s on their webpage https://www.ait.org.tw/u-s-citizen-services/notaries-public/?_ga=2.267795342.1418664248.1516373458-1717543196.1516373458
It is there. I couldn’t believe it myself, and I called to confirm.
If you’re an American who needs notarized signatures for US documents, I would highly advise using a company that will accept an online notary service.
Thats 1/2 more or less of the price of a flight to USA.
Yeah it’s a racket. One side of the room has teller windows like a bank. You slide your document under the window, they figure out how many signatures it will take, and they push back an invoice (keeping the document to be notarized). You take the invoice to the other side of the room and pay up front. An hour later I had my notarized contract.
In most places it’s “US$50 per consular seal”. Does that mean you had 12 consular seals?
Hah. What happened is that the title company wrote up the contract using ‘D’ for my middle initial. My passport has my whole middle name. The notarized document had 12 signature by me, but they only provided one consular seal in a separate document, page 15. This page just noted that there was a discrepancy between my name on the document and my name on my passport. We went over and over this, they would not budge. One consular seal, 12 signatures, $600.
AIT isn’t in the regular Embassy loop so sometimes gets things mucked up.
London for example is “US$50 per consular seal”
https://uk.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/notary-services-for-all-nationalities/fees-notary-services/?_ga=2.27751356.1418664248.1516373458-1717543196.1516373458
And Paris is “per Consular Seal is US $50”.
https://fr.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/notarial-services-all-nationalities/documents-we-notarize/
Tokyo Notarials “Each Seal $50”
https://jp.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/passports/fees/
Even the State Department says a consular seal is $50.00 fee per seal.