[~amy~]

I have lost time on dossier progress at the Secretary of State authentication stage because a couple of the notaries did not put a "complete acknowledgement" on the document, and one did not list her exact commission expiration date (she only listed month and year, not day).

Hopefully, this can be a heads-up to those who are in the document collection phase. Double check your notary signatures against the guidelines (notary handbook) for your state!!

Best wishes to all!
Amy

[drjeanne]

Thanks Amy! Dossier paperwork is so important and SO SO frustrating! It's good to post what to watch for in order to save others valuable time! We had a notary who signed without his middle initial and the middle initial was on his bond so, had to go back and redo. We also had trouble with one of the courthouses we had to go to. Seems they had never done an certification or authentication so, they copied a copy of the notary's bond and gave that to us! Oh well! Ours is finally finished and HOPEFULLY correct! We'll have to wait and see! Best of luck to you Amy and all those out there doing paperwork! You'll get it all finished! Don't worry!

J

[DPline]

Originally Posted by drjeanne

We had a notary who signed without his middle initial and the middle initial was on his bond so, had to go back and redo.

Oh yes! Been there, done that! Five pages, drive an hour one way, only to have to drive home and start all over! Blaaaahhhhh!

[LadyTink]

It is so important to catch all of these issues before you get to the authenication stage. I missed some and had to make 4 trips to my SOS office, which is 1 1/2 hr away. I'll definitely be more careful next time.

[Jeremiahsmommy]

I agree, two our notaries were wrong, we redid them before we certified and authenticated them, they were sent with the dossier corrected.

Also, the correct wording, acknowledgement, has to be there. (Submitted and sworn-sentence)

Also, date of signiture (notary) has to match date on document.

Also, middle initals of notaries must be there if he/she has a middle initial on the stamp/seal.

At least-for our state- these were requirements....

[bjmom]

It always amazes me when notaries don't sign their names right, write over something, don't use the right date, etc. One notary we used told me that it didn't matter if she didn't use her middle initial. I showed her the notary guidelines our agency gave us which stated that if the middle initial was part of her commission, it must be used.

[capt911k]

We had a Washington mutual bank Refuse to Notarize some of our paperwork because they could not verifiy the accuracy of the infomation that was on it........That was news to me I was always of the under standing that they only had to attest that the person that they watched sign the doccument was who they said they were.

Stupid paperwork.

[Molly12]

Where do you get the notary guidelines for your state? This paperwork collection seems very daunting! Esp. if the notaries aren't even sure what they are supposed to be doing!

Molly

[kimberlyann68]

I cringe just thinking back at the paperwork stage. My husband and I drove all the way to Columbus, Ohio (a 6 hour round-trip), to get a certified copy of his divorce decree. The person didn't print their name underneath their signature, so we had to make another 6-hour round-trip to get another one. We made sure it was right before we left that time.