Job Discussion Forums

[Edward-SoCal]

Please, forgive the two questions I've posted in a row. Search wouldn't help on this one.

Here's the situation.

I'm an American living in the Republic of Georgia. Recently was accepted for a university teaching job in Guangzhou, China. Doing paperwork now.

Being away from the States makes things a lot harder. For example, they say I need to get my university diploma authenticated with the Secretary of State, and before I could do that, I would need the university registrar to notarize it. I called them (Cal State LA) and they said they don't perform such a service and that all authentication needs to be processed by the Secretary of State.

July 1 is my deadline to submit all paperwork, and I don't know what to do at this point. And I would still need to get FBI check by then, on top of that.

Seems like a real hell ride.

Did anyone else here have to go through this with such tight deadlines? What did you do?

[nomad soul]

They're right. The university doesn't authenticate diplomas; that's the function of Cali's Secretary of State's office. You need to be clear that you want your diploma notarized by the university.

Rather than getting some random person in the registrar's office by phone, I suggest you email the university registrar directly. Include the assistant registrar as a 'cc' for backup.

In your subject line, state: Request for diploma notarization for employment abroad

In the body of your email, state the following:

I am required to submit my authenticated diploma to the Chinese consulate for employment purposes. I first need to have my diploma notarized by the university registrar's office. What does the university's notarization process entail, what is the cost, and how long will the process take?

Thank you,
Name
Graduation date:
Student ID#:
Email address:

If you're in a time crunch, consider paying a document processing agency in California to handle this process for you. Google California diploma authentication service.
.

[Edward-SoCal]

[housecat]

Why would the university need to authenticate it's own document? When having mine apostilled for UAE, I first had it notarized by a notary at my bank, then by the secretary of state.

For China, the secretary of the secretary of state did the initial notarizing.

It's expensive, but not being here, you'll need to hire a document courier service. I don't remember which I used for UAE, but they will do all the running for you.

Here is one: http://www.cxdelivery.com/document_courier.php

[Edward-SoCal]

[housecat]

Well, it IS an apostille, but you're right that its different. There is a visa letter that they type up when you do the background check, and that is then what the Secretary of state also notarizes. I've just gone and done this process myself.

And I hear the real time expense is once this is all done and sent to China. You should talk to a courier and ask them to have China send the visa on to you, if possible, and not back to the US embassy as per normal. I don't know if they will do that or not, but maybe it's as simple as providing a pre stamped envelope with your current address? It's worth a shot because I've heard that the process in China can take a month by itself. You don't ant to wait to have your passport mailed back to the States and then on to you after.

You should look online for a form from your home state police HQ. You will have to sign it giving permission for them to release your background check information to the courier service or else you'll have to go and get it yourself (I was able to do that because I live close to state police). When you fill out the form, write "visa letter" on the top of the form somewhere. The courier service will know what this is, hopefully, especially if you find one that works with the Chinese embassy.

Good luck to you.

[nomad soul]

[Edward-SoCal]

[Edward-SoCal]

[nomad soul]

[Edward-SoCal]

[nimadecaomei]

I have recently heard Beijing will now authenticate documents. I heard, but have not been through the process. Might be doing it soon though.

[Edward-SoCal]

I don't know about Beijing, but I went to the local US Embassy and they said they could notarize my diploma with some affidavit and attach the document to the Diploma. They'll charge 50$ for this service and sounded pretty confident that the state would honor that and proceed with authentication.

The strange this is, the Chinese Embassy here said they would stamp it if I got that authenticated even here in the Republic of Georgia (by their foreign ministry).

Sounds a bit risky, and I don't know if I should attempt to take care of all this here, locally.

I wonder if anyone's done that.

[nomad soul]

[JeremyDay]

You can refer to the following page:

https://www.visarite.com/auth_diploma.htm

I used the above instructions to prepare my diploma. Then, I took it myself to my secretary of state. I used a real diploma.

I understand why people are saying that your university should do the notarization, but some universities don't do it! There is more than one path to fulfilling the requirements.

If you cannot go back to the USA, I would suggest the following page for information:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal-considerations/judicial/authentication-of-documents/notarial-and-authentication-services-consular-officers.html

Read all the FAQs, because the one at the bottom talks about further authentication of the consular notary.

These are all three viable paths to authenticating your degree.

The secretary of state is not authenticating your degree. They are verifying the authority of the notary that took your sworn statement.

If the university provides the notary, the secretary of state is still just verifying the authority of the notary that took statement made by the university official.

That is why I believe that the consular notary can do the same thing. The Department of State verifies the authority of the notary rather than your particular secretary of state. That is the only difference.