A Notary is a qualified lawyer – a member of the third and oldest branch of the legal profession in the United Kingdom. He is appointed by the Court of Faculties of the Archbishop of Canterbury and is subject to regulation by the Master of the Faculties. The rules which affect Notaries are very similar to the rules which affect Solicitors. They must be fully insured and maintain fidelity cover for the protection of their clients and the public. They must keep clients’ money separately from their own and comply with stringent practice rules and rules relating to conduct and discipline. Notaries have to renew their practising certificates every year and can only do so if they have complied with the rules.

A Notary Public, or Notary, can authenticate or legalise any document. A Notary Public may also be known as a Notario Publico, Notaio, Notario, Notar or a Notaire. A Notary can also if required by the receiving country provide apostille/legalisation services. The services of a Notary Public will usually be required if you have documents which are needed to be used abroad/overseas. The Notaries signature and seal will verify to the authorities in that country that the relevant checks have been carried out and this will enable the receiving country to rely upon the document which has been presented to them.

A Notary Public does not commonly give advice about the meaning or effect of a document or transaction. Documents presented to a Notary Public/ Notary may be in a foreign language. The notary must ensure that both they and the notary client understand the meaning and effect of the document. It is important that the notary client provides the Notary Public/ Notary any correspondence or advice that he has been given by others such as foreign agents/ lawyers.

A Notary prepares Notarial Acts, including Authentic Acts, mainly being documents executed in England and Wales for use everywhere in the world. This includes drafting, reviewing and explanation of legal documents for use outside the UK.

There are two basic types of Notarial Act; those in private form and those in Public or authentic form.

The private form is when a Notary annexes a Notarial Certificate by way of authentication of a document and its contents thus converting it into a Notarial Act.

The Public Form is drafted by the Notary, which will include verification of identity, legal capacity and understanding of the document and awareness of the contents, confirming authority to enter into the transaction eg. in the case of a corporate body and also authenticating the contents after verifying the same.

Notaries are authorised and empowered to carry out all types of legal work carried out by solicitors, other than contentious work. This is a similar situation to that of the Notary in Civil Law jurisdictions. Accordingly, Notaries may deal with conveyancing, probate and Wills and all other types of non-contentious commercial and private legal work.

Independence and Rules

A Notary Public/ Notary is an independent officer and must not do anything to compromise this. Notaries are considered to be ‘gate keepers’ of money laundering and therefore should not act in matters where they have a personal interest or there is a conflict of interest, and are subject to professional rules and standards to ensure the protection of their clients.

A Notary Public/ Notary holds an official seal and Notarial Acts in England and Wales have probative force. Notarial Acts under the signature and seal of a Notary are recognised as evidence of a responsible official legal officer in all countries of the world. The Civil Procedure Rules of the Supreme Court of Judicature of England & Wales – rule 32.20 provide that “A Notarial Act or Instrument may be received in evidence without further proof as duly authenticated in accordance with the requirements of the law unless the contrary is proved”

Notaries Public have been appointed by legal authority in England and Wales since the thirteenth century. The Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533, created the Court of Faculties of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which is the oldest Court in England. The Court has the power to appoint Notaries Public acting through its president, the Master of the Faculties. The Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 and The Legal Services Act 2007 confirm these powers of the Master. As officers of the law and holders of the Public Office of the Notary Public, the duties of Notaries Public are wide ranging and include the preparation and drawing up of private and public Authentic Acts and Instruments under their signatures and official seals, which are accepted and recognised throughout the world.

The fact that Notaries in England and Wales are public officials is also made absolutely clear by their full titles of Notaries Public or Public Notaries in various Acts of Parliament. The Notaries Society Old Church Chambers 23 Sandhill Road St James Northampton NN5 5LH

Notary Services :

Examples of some services offered by a Notary/ Notary Public are as follows:

• Certified / notarised copy of a passport
• Certify / notarise copies of academic certificates
• Certify / notarise other documents
• Any other documents for use abroad, which require a notary stamp
• Help with obtaining an Apostille/ Legalisation if required by the receiving country
• Facilitate purchase and sale of property abroad
• Power of Attorney for use abroad / overseas
• make a statutory declaration or swear an oath or affidavit
• confirm your single status in order to marry abroad
• obtain duplicate documents for lost passports or your other important documents
• Indian OCI Cards
• Contracts authenticated / notarised by a notary
• Translation certified by a notary
• Patents, Trade Marks or Domain Names

This is the official confirmation that the signature, seal and stamp of the notary is that of a genuine, practising UK notary public.

Stage one: involves the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO): they verify the notary’s signature and attach an ‘Apostille’ to your document or to the Notarial Certificate prepared by the notary.

Stage two: some countries require a further verification process from their embassies or consulates. M M Karim Notary Public can do all this for you just ask.

Apostilles authenticate the seals and signatures of officials on public documents such as birth certificates, notarials, court orders, or any other document issued by a public authority, so that they can be recognised in foreign countries that are parties to the Hague Convention.

An Apostille in the United Kingdom is a certificate issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which verifies the signature and/or seal of a public officer, e.g. a Notary Public, on a document and the capacity in which he or she has acted and has the same effect as legalisation.

Our notaries are well experienced in producing these certificates. Having an apostille is very beneficial; as it will speed up any situation where you are told that you have to prove your identity. A seal of approval from our notaries will be recognised by any organisation all over the world.

It takes us a short amount of time to obtain apostille certificates from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. We also work with all the embassies in the UK to provide a fast and efficient service for you.

M M Karim Notary Public provides a full apostille / legalisation service. We take care of the whole process for you. Once apostilled / legalised, your documents maybe collected, couriered back to you or sent on to their final destination. We can handle all these steps for you at our East London office. You will find that we are very easy to talk to and we place great importance to any worries you may have.

Where urgent legalisation is required we provide a premium day service at a competitive rate where you will receive your document back on the same business day. We can arrange for legalised/notarised documents to be couriered directly to your representatives or agents overseas.

M M Karim Notary Public has a great deal of experience in obtaining legalisation on its client’s behalf.

We can obtain:

• legalisation by “Apostille” at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO);
• legalisation at foreign Consulates, (Embassies and Diplomatic Missions) in the U.K.

One of our dedicated team of messengers attends the FCO or particular Consulate in person.

APOSTILLE

Many countries have ratified the Hague Convention of 5th October 1961 on the legalisation of public documents. Documents for use in such countries only require legalisation by “Apostille” at the FCO.

Apostilles are required for a number of different countries around the world. This includes USA, UAE, Australia, Argentina, Canada (to name a few). The list of countries are many so please call us and book an appointment at our East London office so we can identify the correct procedure for the country you are concerned with. If you have a personal or business issue abroad you will almost certainly require an apostille.

M M Karim Notary Public offers a two-tier service for obtaining an Apostille:

1) PREMIUM SERVICE – obtained from the Legalisation Office in Central London.

The FCO offers this “same day” service to which we have access as registered users. This means documents ready to be lodged by our messengers (at an additional fee) by early afternoon on any working day should be returned to us before close of business on the same day. The FCO currently charge £75 for each Apostille issued in Central London. What does this mean for you? M M Karim Notary Public can provide a same-day Foreign and Commonwealth Office legalisation service. If you are able to get your documents to us by 12pm, we can get this stamped by the (FCO) and back to you later in the day (usually by 4:30pm);

2) STANDARD SERVICE – obtained from the Legalisation Office in Milton Keynes.

We can arrange legalisation by Apostille through the Milton Keynes Office within 3-5 working days. The FCO currently charge £30 for each Apostille issued in Milton Keynes Office and we charge a minimal administration fee per apostille.

The list of countries that are currently signatories to the Hague Convention and therefore an Apostille will be required is as follows:

A : Albania Andorra Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan

B : Bahamas Bahrain Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria

C : Cape Verde China (Hong Kong) China (Macao) Colombia Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic

D : Denmark Dominica Dominican Republic

E : Ecuador El Salvador Estonia

F : Fiji Finland France

G : Georgia Germany Greece Grenada

H : Honduras Hong Kong Hungary

I : Iceland India Ireland Israel Italy

J : Japan

K : Kazakhstan Korea

L : Latvia Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg

M : Macao (China) Macedonia (FYR of) Malawi Malta Marshall Islands Mauritius Mexico Monaco Mongolia Montenegro

N : Namibia Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niue Norway

O : Oman

P : Panama Paraguay Peru Poland Portugal

R : Republic of Kyrgyzstan Republic of Moldova Romania Russian Federation

S : Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Serbia Seychelles Slovakia Slovenia South Africa Spain Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland

T : The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Turkey

U : Ukraine United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) United States of America (USA) Uruguay Uzbekistan

V : Vanuatu Venezuel

CONSULAR LEGALISATION

For countries which have not ratified the Hague Convention of 5th October 1961, documents must be legalised at the Consulate of the country in question. For some countries it will still be necessary to first obtain an Apostille. If the notarised document needs Consular legalisation more time is needed. Particularly in connection with some countries where the legalisation process requires two visits. Such countries include UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Tunisia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China and Uruguay.

We are highly experienced in the process of Consular legalisation; we understand the various requirements and know the likely time scales involved. If the notarised document donor is a company, the legalisation process can be more complicated as in the case of documents for Saudi Arabia. Documents for Saudi Arabia often have to be presented to the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and/or the Arab Chamber of Commerce. We can advise, just ask.

M M Karim Notary Public is familiar with all the procedures which can be many and varied, and can obtain legalisation whatever the intended country of use.

Following the implementation of the Money Laundering Regulations 2003, notaries are now obliged to keep sufficient evidence on their files of the identity and the address of all their clients before they undertake any services.

Each person whose signature they are to certify must provide one of the following original identification documents at the time of the appointment.

• passport
• driving licence (with photo card)
• national identity card (EEA state members)
• an armed forces pass (with photo and signature)
• firearms licence (with photo and signature)
• other government issue ID (with photo and signature)
• residence permit
• benefit book or original notification letter from Benefits Agency

If you do not have the above documents, you will have to ask the notary to advise you on how best to prove who you are.

In addition, they require proof of residence, which can be one of the following original documents:

• Bank statement or letter from bank
• Utility bill or council tax bill (not mobile phone bill)
• Tenancy agreement or Housing Association rent card
• Inland revenue tax demand or self-assessment statement

For corporate/business clients, notaries will (in addition to checking your personal identity) now need to establish that the company or organisation which you represent actually exists and in many cases that you are authorised to represent that company or organisation. In the case of companies or organisations based in the United Kingdom, the notary will generally conduct his own checks to satisfy himself that the company or organisation exists. In some cases (particularly for companies or organisations established overseas) he may ask you to produce certain documents. These might include:

• Certificate of incorporation
• Extract from the company register
• Certificate of Good Standing
• Latest report and audited accounts
• Up to date certified copy of partnership agreement
• Evidence of being regulated by a regulatory body such as the Law Society or FSA.

If the notary has to certify your authority to represent a company or organisation, additional documentation will be requested, for example:-

• Constitutional documents (e.g. memorandum and articles of association)
• Power of Attorney
• Chamber of Commerce certificate
• Board Resolutions
• Authorised signatory book (in the case of banks)

Your notary will be happy to advise exactly what will be required in any particular case.

Additional information may be required when we are acting for business clients. This is to ensure that a company check can be performed.

Our fees for notarisation start at £50 No VAT and No Hidden Charges.

An early indication of fees can generally be given when you enquire with the Notary/ Notary Public about the services you require.

The Areas we Cover:

Notary London. Notary Addlestone Banstead Tadworth Barking Dagenham Barnet Brent Bushey Camden Caterham Warlingham Chertsey Cheshunt Chigwell Chorleywood City of London Dartford Egham Enfield Epsom Ewell Esher Molesey Gravesend Hackney Hammersmith Fulham Haringey Harrow Havering Hillingdon Hoddesdon Islington Kensington Chelsea Kings Langley Kingston upon Thames Leatherhead Loughton Merton Newham Northfleet Ottershaw Redbridge Richmond upon Thames Rickmansworth Shepperton South Oxhey Staines Sunbury Sunningdale Ascot Sutton Swanscombe Tower Hamlets Virginia Water Waltham Abbey Waltham Forest Walton Weybridge Wandsworth West End Westminster Windlesham Woking Byfleet

Please visit our notary public website at https://www.mk-notarypublic.com for further information or call 020 3817 7502 or mobile number 07957364414.