Can I get a witness?

Had to email our lovely dossier coordinator, Jessa today, Hi Jessa!...cuz I be confused. Like. Really, really confused. That's me. Con.fused. Oh sooo much so. There is an incredible amount of notarizing and certifying and authenticating of this document and that, that I seriously could not wrap my brain around what exactly I need to do. So I thought I'd share a snippet of her response with you....so you can be confused alongside with me. Confusion loves company after all.

"The purpose of a notary is to bear witness to a signature. The certification step of the process is when the Secretary of State (or in the case of a JAG, the Department of State) views the notary information and verifies that the person is authorized to notarize a document. The Secretary (or Department) of State will attach its own certificate page to the document you send them. The authentication step is when the Chinese Consulate views the certification page and determines that the government entity (the State) is authorized to certify a document. They will place a sticker/seal on the back of one of the pages.

Vital records (birth and marriage certificates) come to you considered “certified records” which just indicates that it was issued by the proper authority. These documents are not considered “certified” for China. These vital records will have to go to their respective Secretary of State (from the state where they are issued) for certification and then sent to their respective Chinese Consulate for authentication. A notary will not be notarizing these vital records."



Ummmm. Yeah. No idea.

I have concluded in all of my confusion that basically the notary is saying that yes, it is us who signed these documents, then the Secretary of State(seriously?!) says yes, that notary is valid...and then the Consulate determines that yes, the Secretary of State's validation is valid. Ummm. Ok then. Glad that's cleared up.

Yeah. I need aspirin.