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Can anyone please tell me the difference between authentication and certification? For example, the marriage certificate needs to be certified, which I understand to have a live signature and / or raised seal. Now, with the authentication, what additional step / process does that require?
Thanks all!
Brandy
We were able to skip the County Certification step by having an attorney notarize everything. It sure made life easier!! (BTW, we're in Ohio.) :p
Sam
DH - Andy
DS - Cullen (8 years old, bio)
waiting for Kieren (and the I-171H!) :D
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Sam:
Is that easier, going to a lawyer? Luckily for me the county courthouse is about 5 minutes away, and the state capital, about 45 minutes from home. Who certifies things? I hear people talking about going to the State Department and such. Where is this? If it is in DC, do you Fedex everything to them? This whole process seems a bit scary to me! I guess my agency will give me all the directions, but I live in a state without any good agencies (NM), so everything is out of state. Oh, Sam, does "your agency" give good instructions on this?? I sure hope so! I hate paperwork!
Jennie
**Hoping Dh will be ready to send off an application soon!
luvmykatydid,
Whether or not you need county certification depends upon the state origin of your documents. My agency gave me a comprehensive guide on each states requirements since different documents require different treatments. I assume your agency will do the same for you if they aren't dealing with it for you. DH and I only had to deal with 3 states--KY(where we live and were married), SC (my birth cert.), and Texas (his birth cert.). Ky and SC both had to go through the D.C. Consulate and therefore had to go through the State Department. Our Texas document technically could have gone through less steps by going through the Houston Chinese Consulate, but ironically it was easier and cheaper to take it through the additional steps and only go through the D.C. Consulate.
Most states only require you to get the documents notarized and not county certified. Thankfully, only our Ky documents required County certification. We did notarization as we went along. I found that to be the easiest way to get our notarization done. Most places we went had a notary on staff and for everything else I just had our department secretary at my work do it for us. If you don't work at a place with notaries on staff, you can usually get it done at the county courthouse or have an attorney do it. If you live close enough, you can drive your documents to your Secretary of State office and get them to state certify in a day. If not you can Fed-ex them. If you live near the consulate you can also walk them over yourself. I don't know about any other consulate, but the D.C. consulate requires 4 days to turn over the paperwork unless you pay A LOT extra. If you don't live near the consulate, you'll need to hire a courier (at least in D.C.--they require everything be walked through--this is a new rule. You used to be able to mail them in, but it changed this year.)
Again, I had extra steps because Ky required extra steps as the Secretary of State office doesn't keep records about their notaries on file...they need to rely upon the county for that information. Hence the extra step. I don't know why the D.C. Consulate requires the State Department Seal...but that only takes one morning. My agency supplied me the name of the courier, and she took my documents in last Tuesday to Colin Powell's office. They were signed by 11:30am and then she walked them across the street to the consulate. She picked them up on Friday from the embassy and sent them back to me and I had them this Monday morning.
Your agency should give you some sort of guide to help you out and if not you should have a social worker assigned to help you. (Though you'll probably have both.) My social worker has been great, and it's helpful she too is adopting from China with an anticipated travel date of May...so she's literally "just been through it" on every step.
I hope that made the mud a little clearer...I'm so excited. I just hope there are no problems and I have DTC on Thursday. It'll make my Christmas!!!!
Jo,
I have asked for a girl or twins from ages birth to 12 months. I know I'll most probably not get refered an infant younger than 8 months...but very occasionally it happens...so I figured I'd give it a try. I really don't care so much about age, gender or anything else...just health. I know there are no guarrentees there, but I'm hopeful.
Lissa,
You have such a contageous and positive energy level! Thanks for the informative post.
Karen~
Lissa:
Thanks for the tips. I am a bit nervous about the whole paperwork process. I guess I will figure it all out soon! Just take it one step at a time, right? It still sounds daunting to me, but hopefully the social worker will be helpful, and can "hold my hand" a bit through the process! I just wish I could use a local agency, but alas, that is what we get for living in New Mexico...Not many choices here! Not even that many good Chinese restaurants!
Jennie
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Ah...but you have beautiful scenery in New Mexico, Jennie! I used to live in Albuquerque and loved going up in the Sandias to watch the sunsets over the west mesa....
All: Thank you so much for your words of advice! I'm going to do this one piece of paper at a time!
Arlington1, thanks for the comment on making copies, I will be sure to do that!
Feeling better about this today, thanks to you guys! :p
Brandy
"I just wish I could use a local agency, but alas, that is what we get for living in New Mexico"
I totally understand...Kentucky is the same way. As far as I know there is only one international agency in our state and it's still further away than the one I am using in MO. Even my "local agency" that is performing our post placements (and did our homestudy) is an hour hike away, and it IS the closest.
Ya gotta love a college town in the sticks!
I kid, but I do really wish we were closer to our international agency. I've missed out on all the formal training and all the bonding with others adopting. I feel very much like I'm on an island. I've been making radios out of coconuts, But you know...thusfar they're all playing pretty cool music so...God Bless Coconuts. :D
I feel extremely fortunate. With our agency, we will be traveling with 5-6 other couples from the same location, and the agency encourages us to keep in touch with the others that will grow up in the same County/city as their orphanage "cousins". The agency also conducts/helps organize yearly gatherings and post placement meetings as well as mommy night out for the women. Theoretically, our daughter will have a handfull of friends that are from the same orphanage, adopted at the same time, now living in the same location, thruout her lifetime.
~Karen
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jlync1- Yes, I do love the mountains. Looking at the Sandia's right now out my kitchen window. Albuquerque is a great town, and I love living here. Will spend Christmas Eve in the east mountains with DH's family. Too bad they are not predicting snow. That would be perfect!
I do wish that there was a way I could visit face to face with other a-parents. It would really add something to this experience. I have spoken with one of my pastors who is thinking of adopting from Africa. It was so nice to talk to someone who knows what it is like to receive that calling, as well as to know that you aren't doing it for some sort of heroic and/ altruistic reasons. You simply want to have another baby and are doing it differently. Sure, you feel sad for the children, but that isn't enough reason to go get one! You have to know it is right for your family.
God Bless,
jennie
Jennie
Yes, the paperwork is looking daunting! I feel very lucky our agency is local and both the agency and sw have said they will hold our hands all the way! Our agency doesn't do the certification/documentation, but are a local phone call away!
My biggest concern is the time! I sent for our marriage license copies on Nov. 21, the check cleared the 23, and we still have no certificate!! I'm going to call them this morning. Hopefully Washington state isn't this slow with everything. I can see we will be driving to the Seattle/Olympia area to handle everything in person-well worth the 2 hour drive!
Tina :eek:
Im waiting for the marriage lic and a divorce decree..both sent in dec 10, neither have cashed checks. Perhaps everyone is on vacation this time of year...ugh!
I talked to the office of vital statistics, and they said they are 5-6 weeks out! So we should get ours in the next week or 2. We will definitely be driving to get fingerprints, and arrange passports asap!
:rolleyes:
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I have picked on living in the sticks so much I feel compelled to defend my rural community by saying, that the one major benefit has been same day delivery on all our documents from KY. It took 6 weeks to get my hubby's birth certificate out of Houston...so I know the woes of waiting...but score one for the sticks on prompt same day service. :rolleyes:
Living in the sticks definitely has its benefits!
We got our marriage licenses today-"certified" and all a whole week or 2 early! Thanks for all your good wishes!
:D