Help! Police Clearance Letter

June 19, 2003

I need some help. I was double checking my documents the other day as I thought I was ready to start getting them certified, etc. I checked the fine print and realized my police clearance letter MUST be notarized. However, when I called about getting it notarized, CJIS says they "don't notarize". Period. I thought I was all set with my "Gold Seal" letter but now I'm stuck.

When I started this process, everyone we talked to (county and state police) said that legally they couldn't write such a letter. So, we went with the "Gold Seal" letter which I thought was the proper approach but now I can't get it notarized.

Help! Anyone (especially from Maryland) had this problem? Where do I turn now?

Any suggestions?

Jeannine

Shoshana

June 19, 2003

I don't know if this would work, but...

Could you bring a notary to the police deptartment with you and have the individual sign the letter in front of the notary?

All the notary is doing is attesting to the fact that the letter was signed in front of him/her (and that the person who signed was identified).

I live in a small town so I had no problems...

Good luck

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JeannineW

June 19, 2003

Unfortunately, the letter is already signed but it's worth a try. I'm not sure my husband mentioned bringing the notary to them. I just know every other way he could think to phrased it, they said, "We don't notarized."

Thanks.

Jeannine

HollynSteve

June 19, 2003

We had to have a police clearance letter. That was actually given to us by the Agency. We signed it and took it to the notary. This was our child abuse clearance. Is that what you're referring to? Once we got our notarized, we sent it to the agency and they took it to the police department to make sure we were cleared.

JeannineW

June 19, 2003

I had to have the child abuse clearance for my homestudy but this letter is different. It just needs to state we aren't criminals or something like that. It needs to be on letter head and notarized by the signing person. It's a requirement for Guatemalan adoptions.

Thanks for trying to help.

Jeannine

Shoshana

June 19, 2003

I don't believe that a notary will notarize a signature they did not personally witness. You'd have to have the letter re-done in the presence of the notary :-(

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goofie875

June 20, 2003

The background check letter we had to do was basically a form letter from the agency and when we signed it - it gave our approval for them to do the background check. We are doing a domestic adoption in Baltimore County so I am not sure if the paperwork is different when doing international but sorry to say sounds like you may have to have the letter redone in order to have it notarized. Good Luck

pquintern

August 11, 2003

When we adopted three children in June 2000 the clearence for international and homestudy was the same official gold seal letter and that GOLD SEAL IS the fullest clearance and IS accepted by everyone involved in our adoption from Here to US Dept of state/ and the foreign country embasy. I would submit it as the notary seal by the way we did not have to get it notorized from county or state but it did go to the US dept of State. All other documents had to get seals or notary stamps from Local, county, state THEN the US dept of state level then to the foreign countries constulant whatever level. that is when we knew we were out of here...