A Virginia notary public in the UK?

January 17, 2012 10:09 AM

I used to live in Virginia and now live in the UK. When I was in VA I was a state employee and paid into the Virginia Retirement System. I've recently been contacted by the VRS and it turns out I can get a refund on all my contributions. Yay! But - the form I have to fill in to authorise the refund is required to be acknowledged by a "VA notary public or other court official authorised to take acknowledgements". Does anyone know if there's a Virginia notary public in the UK? Or can you get these things done remotely - which seems to go against the idea of a notary public...
posted by cromagnon to Law & Government (10 answers total)

the form I have to fill in to authorise the refund is required to be acknowledged by a "VA notary public or other court official authorised to take acknowledgements".

There's your answer right there. A UK notary (or the equivalent if it's called something else) would be a "court official authorized to take acknowledgments."
posted by slkinsey at 10:19 AM on January 17, 2012

When you asked the VRS about that, what did they say?
posted by kindall at 10:19 AM on January 17, 2012

You are not the only person to ever leave the state of VA, regardless of your destination. Write them back and ask what the procedure is for people no longer resident in the state, or indeed, in the US.
posted by DarlingBri at 10:20 AM on January 17, 2012

If VRS allows it, you should be able to find a UK notary in your area, using this website. Solicitors can also act as notaries, so you can call around and do a price comparison. If you're near London, the embassy will also notarise documents (if you absolutely need it to be a US notary) but they charge $50 per document, so it's only useful as a last resort.
posted by sundaydriver at 10:56 AM on January 17, 2012

Best answer: Also a quick check on the Embassy website indicates they don't notarize "US State-issued documents so if you choose that route you probably want to call to find out for sure whether they will notarize yours.
posted by Cocodrillo at 11:01 AM on January 17, 2012

Response by poster: >When you asked the VRS about that, what did they say?

"Thank-you for your enquiry. We aim to respond in two business days. If you've not heard from us..." - so yes, I'm just scouting around in case this is a more common thing and someone could provide an answer.

>A UK notary (or the equivalent if it's called something else) would be a "court official authorized to take acknowledgments."

I wondered about that phrase, but next to the space for the name of the notary is a box for their certification number in the state of Virginia.

The embassy route looks closed for numerous reasons, not least them not notarising state documents. But via Cocodillo's link you can get to the UK FCO notarisation services page which suggests I might have to get it notarised by a UK notary, send it off to the FCO for an apostille under the Hague Convention, which should then be acceptable to the State of Virgina. At some level this is quite cool and rather like SSH tunnelling.
posted by cromagnon at 12:54 PM on January 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

If you knew someone in Virginia who was a notary, they can make the designation that it was signed "by an individual known personally to me," which precludes your need to be present to sign it in front of them. Bank tellers and ministers are often notaries.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 2:44 PM on January 17, 2012

In Canada we have "Commissioner of Oaths", does the UK have something like that? I've used that for various American paperwork and never had a problem.
posted by Salamandrous at 12:21 PM on January 18, 2012

As a US notary, I've often notarized documents from other states that have that state's notary designations on them, like you mentioned a space for VA notary license number. I cross those out, and fill in the designations for my state, and it's never been a problem. They just want notarization to prove that the signature is actually yours, so I'd think a UK notarization would be fine.

As for signed "by an individual known personally to me," that was suggested, in my state that just means that I haven't checked their ID to confirm their identity, because I know who they are. I still have to see them sign it.
posted by lawhound at 8:21 AM on January 19, 2012

Response by poster: For the next person looking, I now have answers:

1) The VRS will not accept a UK notary seal directly. They would accept the apostille route described above, but it would require four [costly] steps - UK notary, UK FCO Apostille, US State Dept Apostille, VRS acceptance.

2) The US Embassy in London says "Due to government regulations, we cannot provide the ... Notarization/legalization/authentication of U.S. State-issued documents"

This is imprecise. After enquiring directly with the Embassy notary, I received a reply: "When we mention state issued documents on our website, we mean such documents as marriage/birth/death certificates which each state has their own process of issuing. We are able to notarize your signature on your document"

So that's the route. Thanks for all your advice.
posted by cromagnon at 4:13 AM on January 24, 2012