Frequently Asked Questions

In England and Wales, notaries public are normally qualified lawyers who undergo rigorous background checks to ascertain their good character, to ensure that their certifications can be relied upon throughout the world. On admission to the profession, all notaries swear an oath that they will not attest any document which has ‘fraud or violence’, so that the genuineness and authenticity of documents certified by English and Welsh notaries is trusted worldwide.

English and Welsh notaries are specifically trained to oversee the proper execution of documents for use abroad, particularly for compliance with the formality requirements of deeds, sworn statements such as affidavits, statutory declarations and other documents such as powers of attorney, so that these may be accepted for use abroad.

All notaries in England and Wales are also commissioners for oaths, which means they can administer affidavits (oaths sworn on a holy book or affirmed) and statutory declarations, and Notaries in England and Wales are regulated through the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

English and Welsh notaries can also be solicitors or barristers, but they do not need to be dual-qualified in this way (whereas all Scottish-qualified solicitors are also notaries).

All of our notaries are qualified to practise throughout England and Wales competent in several foreign languages, so that they can issue certification directly in Italian, Greek, Spanish, Romanian, German, Polish and French, which can save you translation costs.

With the exception of affidavits sworn on oath or affirmed and statutory declarations, notaries in England and Wales are almost exclusively needed where a document has been drafted by a civil law lawyer or notary, and the English notary needs to certify the identity of the signatories and the valid execution of the document in full compliance with the local and foreign formalities (e.g. initialling on every page for France, full signature on every page in the notary’s presence for Greece, legible signatures for Italy).

If you have been sent a document by your lawyer who is based outside of the UK or advising on a transaction taking place outside of the UK, ask your adviser if you need a local English/Welsh notary to certify your documents.

All of our notaries are qualified to practise in all of England and Wales.

We see clients in our offices in the West End, Marylebone, Mayfair, Westminster Victoria and the City of London but can also attend your offices or your residential address to meet you if this is more convenient. Our fees for meeting clients externally are calculated based on the travel time and assuming that the meeting will not last longer than 30 minutes, and start at £130 per hour including travel to and from the appointment from our office, as well as travel costs.

An apostille is a sticker affixed to the underside of the notarial certificate, sealed and signed by an officer of the FCDO, which confirms the Notary’s seal, signature and current practising status of the Notary and validates the document to be used abroad pursuant to the 1961 Hague Convention.

To have the document apostilled, we need to first take it to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), which is the only institution in the UK which can issue and affix the apostille. The FCDO can only affix an apostille to a document bearing the original wet-ink signature, stamp or seal of a professional on their register of signatures–most notaries public and officials at HMRC, the General Registry Office and Companies House have their signatures and/or seals and stamps registered with the FCDO so that these signatures, stamps and seals can be apostilled.

Effectively, receiving institutions in foreign countries which have ratified the 1961 Hague Convention must accept documents notarised by an English/Welsh notary bearing apostilles as if they had been notarised by a notary in their own country.

Quotation Stage

The first step to have your document notarised (UK spelling for ‘notarized’) is to send a scan or Microsoft Word draft of your document to us by email at [email protected]. We will quickly review the document and provide you with a quote, process and estimated time frame, and we will let you know which supporting documents we will need to process your documents and if we need to schedule an appointment.

In most cases, the client needs to meet one of our notaries in person (either at one of our West End, City of London or Victoria offices or externally at your office, residence, or other agreed location)and show the notary their original passport and proof of address (not a photocopy). Once we have seen your drafts, we will confirm the exact process and exactly which documents you will need to show us. If you would like to meet one of our notaries outside of our office, we will provide you with a quote for this once you provide the postcode for the meeting and the proposed meeting time and date.

Verification Stage

If we need to verify your document, such as an academic certificate, this may take a few weeks while we wait for the issuing institution to confirm the genuineness of your document to us.

Meeting Stage 1: identification, due diligence and payment

At the meeting, the notary will ask for your consent to take a copy of your passport and proof of address* and will see you sign your document. The notary will take payment by cash or card if you are a new client, or send you an invoice if you are a returning client. If your document needs to be apostilled or legalised, your appointment will not last more than 20 minutes and we will retain the hard copies of your documents so that we can notarise them and take them to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in person to be apostilled, or to the relevant foreign Consulate in London to be legalised for use in that country.

Proof of address can be an original photo card driving licence, or an original bank or credit card statement, utility bill or council tax bill which was received by post and which is dated no more than three months before the appointment. If a bank or credit card statement is used as proof of address, this must show more than a £0 balance.

Meeting Stage 2: notarisation

The “notarisation” process refers to the notary writing a certificate confirming how the notary identified the signatories and witnessed the signatures, or how the notary verified the documents; such certificate is then signed by the notary and affixed with the notary’s professional seal and stamp, and this certificate is either written directly onto your document or printed on a separate piece of A4 high-quality certificate paper and permanently bound to your documents using a hole punch reinforced with a metal eyelet which is then tied with ribbon and secured by another of the notary’s embossed professional seals as shown in the example photographs:

If your document does not need to be apostilled or legalised, only notarised, your appointment will take around 20-60 minutes, depending on the number of your documents, and the notary will immediately prepare a notarial certification which will either be written or typed onto your document or which will be permanently bound to your document by metal eyelet, ribbon and the notary’s professional seal, which helps protect you and your document, preventing tampering and fraud. You will be able to take this with you after the appointment. Documents for use in Commonwealth countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand are often accepted without any apostilles or legalisation stamps.

Apostille and Legalisation Stage

If your document needs to be apostilled for use abroad, we need to first take it to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) which issue and affix the apostille. An apostille is a sticker affixed to the underside of the notarial certificate, sealed and signed by an officer of the FCDO, which confirms the Notary’s seal, signature and current practising status of the Notary and validates the document to be used abroad pursuant to the 1961 Hague Convention.

If you need to use your document in a country which has not ratified the 1961 Hague Convention and which is not part of the Commonwealth, you may need to have the document stamped by the Embassy or Consulate of the country where your document is to be used, to supplement the apostille, e.g. for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, China or the United Arab Emirates. The process for legalisation differs for each country, please send us the draft of your document by email and we will revert with the full process as quickly as possible.

Electronic Document Notarisation Process

If you would like to notarise electronic documents remotely, please email us the PDF scan of these documents, and the DocuSign/HelloSign certificate of completion, if available, we will then confirm the full process and any supporting documents we may need.

Please first send us a scan or Microsoft Word draft of your document by email to [email protected] so we can check that we can assist you and let you know which supporting documents you might need to show us so that we can process your documents. You can then confirm an appointment with us by telephone or email, we usually have good availability to book around two or three days in advance.

In most cases, the client needs to meet one of our notaries in person (either at one of our West End, City of London or Victoria offices or externally at your office, residence, or other agreed location) and show the notary their original passport and proof of address (not a photocopy).

If we do not need to certify any signatures on your documents, e.g. just certified true copies of original ID documents or verified copies of academic certificates, we may not need you to come in to meet us and it might be possible for you to just drop off or courier your original documents to our office, along with a consent signed by the person the documents were issued to.

Once we have seen your drafts, we will confirm the exact process and exactly which documents you will need to show us. If you would like to meet one of our notaries outside of our office, we will provide you with a quote for this once you provide the postcode for the meeting and the proposed meeting time and date.

We book appointments externally or in our West End, Victoria or City of London offices 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Please note that our Victoria and City of London offices are by appointment only. If you would like us to meet you at your office, residence, or another external location, we will provide a quote for our attendance fee based on the postcode of the proposed meeting place – our attendance fees are calculated on an hourly basis, including travel time to and from the appointment from our office and assuming that the meeting will take no more than 30 minutes.

Exceptionally, appointments out of office hours can be arranged, if you would like to request an out-of-hours appointment, please send us an email with your preferred time and location and we will provide you with a quote for this. You can collect your completed documents from our West End office 9am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday.

When we meet you to see you sign a document and to identify you by sighting your original passport and proof of address, the appointment should not take more than 20 minutes if you come to one of our offices. If you only need notarisation, not an apostille or legalisation, then we may need an extra 10-30 minutes to bind the documents for you by ribbon and seal, depending on the number of documents.

Depending on the nature and complexity of your document, we may need a couple of days before the appointment to finish the drafting for you before you can sign the documents. If we need to verify academic certificates with the issuing institution in order to notarise them, this can add weeks to the timeframe while we wait for the issuing institution to confirm to us that your documents are genuine.

Once the documents are notarised, the apostille process takes between one and six working days, depending on which apostille service you would like to use. If your documents need legalising by Consular stamps, the timeframe for this varies greatly depending on which Consulate is concerned–please get in touch with us by sending a PDF scan or Microsoft Word draft of your document to us by email at [email protected] and which jurisdiction you need to use your documents in–we will swiftly reply to you with a quote, procedure and timeframes.

If you need to sign a document and then have it notarised, normally you will need to sign the document in the presence of one of our notaries and show the notary your original passport and proof of address*. For us to notarise some documents, e.g. documents signed on behalf of a company or other institution, we will need to see further supporting documents such as authorising documents (an authorising board minute, power of attorney or authorised signatory list) and proof of existence and capacity (company register extracts, certificates of incorporation and articles of association).

If you need a copy of your documents notarised, you will need to show, courier or drop off the original document to our office so that we can take the copy.

Please send a scan or Microsoft Word draft of your document to us at [email protected] and we will confirm which documents we will need in order to notarise your documents for you. If you have been to see us before, you may be able to have the document notarised remotely if you send the signed version to our office–please send us your draft by email and we will check if remote notarisation is possible in your case.

*Proof of address can be an original photo card driving licence, or an original bank or credit card statement, utility bill or council tax bill which was received by post and which is dated no more than three months before the appointment. If a bank or credit card statement is used as proof of address, this must show more than a £0 balance.

If your document needs to be apostilled for use abroad, we need to first take the hard copy original document(s) to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office(FCDO) which issue and affix the apostille. An apostille is a sticker affixed to the underside of the notarial certificate, sealed and signed by an officer of the FCDO, which confirms the Notary’s seal, signature and current practising status of the Notary and validates the document to be used abroad pursuant to the 1961 Hague Convention. If your document has been signed by a registrar at Companies House or the General Registry Office or by an officer of the HMRC or ACRO in the UK, you may be able to have your document apostilled without it first being notarised–please send a scan of your document to [email protected] and we will confirm this for you.

If the country you need to use your document in is a Commonwealth member (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc.) it may be that you do not need an apostille or legalisation stamps at all – please check with your foreign adviser who asked you to have your documents notarised.

On the contrary, if the country you need to use your document in is not a Commonwealth member and also has not ratified the 1961 Hague Convention on Apostilles (such as Lebanon, Thailand and Mozambique), you may need to have the document stamped at the Embassy or Consulate of the country the document is to be used, on top of the apostille – this process is called ‘consular legalisation’. You can check the list of countries which have ratified the convention here:

https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/status-table/?cid=29

The process for legalisation differs for each country, please send us the draft of your document by email and we will revert with the full process as quickly as possible.

If you need to use your document in a country which has not ratified the 1961 Hague Convention and which is not part of the Commonwealth, you may need to have the document stamped by the Embassy or Consulate of the country where your document is to be used, to supplement the apostille, e.g. for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, China or the United Arab Emirates. The process for legalisation differs for each country, please send us the draft of your document by email and we will revert with the full process as quickly as possible.

If the country you need to use your document in has ratified the 1961 Hague Convention, an apostille will suffice. You can check the list of countries which have ratified the convention here:

https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/status-table/?cid=29

To apostille the document, we need to first take it to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) who issue and affix the apostille. An apostille is a sticker affixed to the underside of the notarial certificate, sealed and signed by an officer of the FCDO, which confirms the Notary’s seal, signature and current practising status of the Notary and validates the document to be used abroad pursuant to the 1961 Hague Convention.

If the country you need to use your document in is a Commonwealth member (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc.) it may be that you do not need an apostille or legalisation stamps at all – please check with your foreign adviser who asked you to have your documents notarised.

Yes, we can, you will need to send or drop off the original to our West End office (not a photocopy). ACRO certificates can usually be apostilled directly, so please check with the advisor who told you to have this document notarised if that is required, or if direct apostille/consular legalisation suffices for their purposes. DBS certificates currently need to be notarised first in order to be apostilled.

Please complete your documents up to the point of signature but leave the documents unsigned and undated, as usually you will need to sign your document in the presence of a notary. There are some exceptions, such as where your witness needs to swear an affidavit on oath before the notary that they saw you sign the document, or if you only need to acknowledge your signature to the notary. Please send a scan or Microsoft Word version of your document to us by email at [email protected] and we will check this for you and confirm along with our quote, timeframe and process.

If you would like us to meet you at your office, residence, or another external location, we will provide a quote for our attendance fee based on the postcode of the proposed meeting place – our attendance fees are calculated on an hourly basis, including travel time to and from the appointment from our office and assuming that the meeting will take no more than 30 minutes.

We would be happy to help you, however we must comply with the duties we owe clients, including to ensure that the client understands what he or she is signing. We have native speakers of Greek, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Arabic, French, German and Polish on our team, who can ensure optimal communication between the client and the notary. If the client does not speak any of these languages, we can still assist you with the help of a qualified interpreter.

If the document is written in a language which the client cannot understand, we would need to be provided with a convenience translation for our file to ensure that the client could understand the document being signed.

Our notaries speak Italian, German and Polish, and can notarise these documents without any English translation. For all other languages, we can still notarise the documents and can work with our in-house translators and native speakers of Greek, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Arabic, French, German and Polish to quickly create convenience translations which we will keep in our file.

If you need an official translation of your document, we are also happy to provide this service. As our translation quotes are calculated by word count, please send the Microsoft Word version of the document to us by email at [email protected], we will calculate the word count and swiftly reply to you with a quote and estimated timeframe.

If the document is written in a language which the signatory cannot understand, we would need to be provided with a convenience translation for our file to ensure that the client could understand the document being signed.

This might be an issue, please highlight this to us when you send your scan or Microsoft Word version of your document to us by email at [email protected]. You may need to check with your foreign advisor who requested you to have your document notarised if they would be happy for us to refer to all of your names or just one version of your name. If you alert us to this issue before the notarisation, we can make clear in our notarial certificate that you are known by more than one name.

Yes, we would be happy to assist you with this, you will need to bring the originals to one of our offices or to meet the notary at an external location. Please give us a call on +44 (0) 207 952 1100 to book your appointment.

Yes, we would be happy to assist you with this, you will need to bring the originals to one of our offices or to meet the notary at an external location. Please give us a call on +44 (0) 207 952 1100 to book your appointment.If we need to verify your document, such as an academic certificate or GP letter, this may take a few weeks while we wait for the issuing institution to confirm the genuineness of your document to us.

We can assist with the verification and certification of your educational qualifications for a declaration of value, however once we have notarised your documents, you will then need to liaise with the Italian Consulate directly to obtain your declaration of value.

In order to certify a copy of your documents we will need to see the originals and verify them with the issuing institution/s. Kindly note that for the verification process we are not able to provide an estimated timeframe, as the reply time varies considerably among institutions.

We will also need to receive for our files a copy of your passport and a proof of address (e.g. recent utility bill or bank statement or UK driving licence).

The first step to have your document notarised (UK spelling for ‘notarized’) is to send a scan or Microsoft Word draft of your document to us by email at [email protected]. We will quickly review the document and provide you with a quote, process and estimated timeframe, and we will let you know which supporting documents we will need to process your documents and if we need to schedule an appointment.

For non-UK companies, we may need to ask you to send us proof of existence of the company, which can be a recently dated screenshot or extract from the relevant companies’ register, a scan of the certificate of incorporation or the memorandum of association and articles of association.

The first step to have your document notarised (UK spelling for ‘notarized’) is to send a scan or Microsoft Word draft of your document to us by email at [email protected]. We will quickly review the document and provide you with a quote, process and estimated timeframe, and we will let you know which supporting documents we will need to process your documents and if we need to schedule an appointment. This will save you time as we may not be able to assist you if you arrive without an appointment, and as we work between different offices and attend on clients at external locations, it is best to schedule an appointment to meet one of our notaries. For example, to notarise your signature on a document, we will always need to see the signatory’s original passport and proof of address* if they are a new client.

*Proof of address can be an original photo card driving licence, or an original bank or credit card statement, utility bill or council tax bill which was received by post and which is dated no more than three months before the appointment. If a bank or credit card statement is used as proof of address, this must show more than a £0 balance.

You can pay by bank transfer or by debit card or credit card (except AMEX) at the appointment or online using our link here:

https://www.notablenotaries.co.uk/index.php/pay-online

Please remember to include the invoice number when paying online or by bank transfer. Small amounts can also be paid in cash.

Please be aware that we do not notify changes to important business information, such as bank account details, by email.

Our fees are calculated on the basis of the amount of time it takes for us to complete the work. which may be a lot more than you anticipate. Notarisation is never a mere rubber stamping exercise and we are duty-bound to take care to thoroughly identify our clients, ensure all formality requirements are complied with and that the clients are validly represented by authorised parties with the requisite capacity, in compliance with regulations governing our practice including the Notarial Practice Rules 2019, the GDPR data protection regulations and the Anti-Money Laundering regulations.

Please send us a scan or Microsoft Word draft of your documents to us by email at [email protected] and we will swiftly reply with a full quote, timeframes and an indication of any supporting documents we may need to see and review in order to process your documents.

Our translation quotes are calculated by word and language combination.

If you need an official translation of your document, we are also happy to provide this service, covering all languages. As our translation quotes are calculated by word count, please send the Microsoft Word version of the document to us by email at [email protected], we will calculate the word count and swiftly reply to you with a quote and estimated timeframe.

If the document is written in a language which the signatory cannot understand, we would need to be provided with a convenience translation for our file to ensure that the client could understand the document being signed. Our notaries speak Italian, German and Polish, and can notarise these documents without any English translation. For all other languages, we can still notarise the documents and can work with our in-house translators and native speakers of Greek, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Arabic, French, German and Polish to quickly create convenience translations which we will keep in our file.

If you need an official translation of your document, we are also happy to provide this service. As our translation quotes are calculated by word count, please send the Microsoft Word version of the document to us by email at [email protected], we will calculate the word count and swiftly reply to you with a quote and estimated timeframe. If we arrange the translation for you, this will save time as we will use a translator whose signature and certificates we already have on file. If you have already had your document translated by another company, we will need to contact your translator to verify the translation before we can certify the accuracy of your translated document.

Yes, we can verify your immigration status with the share code you can generate using the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/view-prove-immigration-status. 

Please send us an email to [email protected] with the instructions you have received from your foreign advisor regarding the visa, and we will reply quickly with a quote, process and suggested appointment time.

Yes, as all notaries public in England and Wales are also commissioners for oaths. Please first send us a scan or Microsoft Word draft of your document by email to [email protected] so we can check that we can assist you and let you know which supporting documents you might need to show us so that we can process your documents. If you would like to swear an oath (on a Holy Book) please let us know which book you would like to swear on, so we can check if we have one available, or if you would prefer to affirm. An affirmation is suitable for those who are not comfortable swearing an oath but is regarded as equally binding on the affiant’s (declarer’s) conscience and is subject to the penalties of perjury.

Yes, we can, however you would need to first check with your foreign adviser who asked you to have your document notarised whether the notarised document would be accepted if the document was signed electronically, as some jurisdictions still require certain documents to be signed in wet-ink before a notary in person, and the notary would need to make clear in his or her notarial certificate if he or she has not met the signatory in person, face-to-face. If you are a returning client and you have identified yourself to one of our notaries face-to-face before, we will be able to verify your identity.

Yes, we can, however you would need to ask the person who prepared the envelope for signing to forward the certificate of completion to us. You would also need to first check with your foreign adviser who asked you to have your document notarised whether the notarised document would be accepted if the document was signed electronically, as some jurisdictions still require certain documents to be signed in wet-ink before a notary in person.

If you send a Microsoft Word draft of your Russian document to us by email at [email protected], we will review this and let you know shortly if we are able to assist you. If you can provide a scan of your passport and proof of address two days in advance, we can use our trusted translator to write the notarial certificate in Russian, which will confirm that the notary met you, identified you by means of your passport and witnessed your signature on the document. If the signatory understands and reads Russian, we will not need to instruct a professional translation of the document itself and it can be signed directly in Russian, thanks to a good relationship with our trusted translators.

For example, to allow my relative to buy a house in Greece on my behalf.

For powers of attorney for use in Greece, we normally need you to provide us with the following information to draft the document in advance of your appointment:

• Full name of the Grantor/Principal in the English and Greek language as it appears in the Greek ID card (or other passport if not a Greek citizen)
• Full names of the Grantor’s/Principal’s parents in the English and Greek languages as they appear in the Greek ID card (or other passport if not a Greek citizen)
• Grantor’s/Principal’s profession
• Grantor’s/Principal’s current residential address
• Grantor’s/Principal’sGreek ID card–number(or other passport if not a Greek citizen)
• Grantor’s/Principal’s Greek ID card–issuing authority (city – office) (or other passport if not a Greek citizen)
• Grantor’s/Principal’s Greek ID card–issuing date (or other passport if not a Greek citizen)
• Full name of the Attorney in the English and Greek languages as it appears in the Greek ID card (or other passport if not a Greek citizen)
• Full names of the Attorney’s parents in the English and Greek languages as they appear in the Greek ID card (or other passport if not a Greek citizen)
• Attorney’s profession
• Attorney’s current residential address
• Attorney’s Greek ID card–number (or other passport if not a Greek citizen)
• Attorney’s Greek ID card–issuing authority (city – office) (or other passport if not a Greek citizen)
• Attorney’s Greek ID card–issuing date (or other passport if not a Greek citizen)

Notaries Public of England and Wales are qualified lawyers who each hold a law degree and who have passed several postgraduate exams including in Roman law and Private International Law. Prior to The Access to Justice Act 1999, Scrivener Notaries had sole jurisdiction to practise within the City of London. All Scrivener Notaries must first qualify as a general notary public of England and Wales. As the biggest UK companies historically kept their registered office in the City of London, and as all Scrivener notaries have passed further exams to prove their competence to issue certification directly in two foreign languages besides English, German notaries and company registers grew accustomed to receiving such certification from Scriveners. However, since The Access to Justice Act 1999, the purpose of which was to open up and make legal services accessible to the entire population in the UK, all general notaries of England and Wales have jurisdiction to issue certification throughout England and Wales, including in the City of London, and are completely and incontrovertibly authorised to issue certification directly into any language they are competent in. However, many textbooks aimed at German trainee notarial assistants (Notarfachangestellte) in Germany have still not been updated to reflect this important change.

Our notaries are competent to issue certification throughout England and Wales, in the languages they are competent in.

Our notaries’ status as currently qualified notaries with the jurisdiction to exercise the office of the public notary throughout all of England and Wales is also confirmed by affixing an apostille to our documents. An apostille is a sticker affixed to the underside of the notarial certificate, sealed and signed by an officer of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). The apostille confirms the Notary’s seal, signature and current practising status of the Notary and validates the document to be used abroad pursuant to the 1961 Hague Convention. To have the document apostilled, we need to first take the hardcopy to the (FCDO) in person who issue and affix the apostille. We will then send you a scan of the document and the tracking number for the courier of our notarised and apostilled document to your lawyer or notary in Germany.

Please note that a UK marriage/birth/death certificate issued by the General Registry Office cannot legally be photocopied as it is subject to Crown copyright. If a photocopy is presented for an apostille, the Foreign Office will refuse to apostille it as this is how they protect and enforce crown copyright on behalf of the British government, if you look at the small print at the bottom of the certificate you will see the official reference to “© Crown Copyright”. If the marriage/birth/death certificate is issued by the UK General Registry Office then a new certified copy issued by the General Registry Office would need to be ordered, which can be done here:

https://www.gov.uk/order-copy-birth-death-marriage-certificate

Please note that this means that only a certified copy issued by the General Registry Office can be notarised and legalised, not a photocopy. If the document needs to be notarised, then the (original) certified copy issued by the General Registry Office/original certificate will be permanently altered by the notarisation process as it will be attached to the notarial certificate using an eyelet (a small hole punch reinforced by a metal ring) and stitched to the notarial certificate, bound by the notary’s ribbon and official seal.