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darkhorse118
Joined: 12 Jan 2009
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 Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:51 pm Post subject: Notarizing documents in Los Angeles |
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Hi all,
I went to five different notary publics in LA area to get my criminal background check notarized, but they all said that the document needs to contain my signature to be notarized.
They said they never even heard of apostile stamp...
Is there anyone from LA area who had a hard time getting through this?
Thanks. |
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fighton
Joined: 27 Jan 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 12:03 am Post subject: Re: Notarizing documents in Los Angeles |
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| darkhorse118 wrote: |
Hi all,
I went to five different notary publics in LA area to get my criminal background check notarized, but they all said that the document needs to contain my signature to be notarized.
They said they never even heard of apostile stamp...
Is there anyone from LA area who had a hard time getting through this?
Thanks. |
I actually got my criminal background check from LA a little over a week ago, got it notarized, and got it apostilled all on the same day. I called up a mobile notary and had her come in to the police station to notarize the signature of the commanding officer who was signing my background check, but later realized that that wasn't necessary*. After getting that done, I took it to the County Clerk's office and had it authenticated, and then took it to the Secretary of State's office to get the apostille.
*My mobile notary didn't sign the document herself, she only stamped it. When I took the document to get it authenticated, a lady there said that there was no signature from my notary (I didn't know she had to sign it as well) and that they couldn't authenticate it. But if I went to another floor, they could notarize my signature and then they could authenticate my signature. So in other words, I could have just taken my background check directly to that office on another floor and gotten it notarized there, then taken it to get authenticated, and then to the Secretary of State's office. I THINK...
Anyway, let me know if you have any questions or need something clarified and I'll try to answer. I'm still waiting for my visa confirmation #, so I'm not in Korea just yet. |
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darkhorse118
Joined: 12 Jan 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 12:58 am Post subject: Re: Notarizing documents in Los Angeles |
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| fighton wrote: |
| darkhorse118 wrote: |
Hi all,
I went to five different notary publics in LA area to get my criminal background check notarized, but they all said that the document needs to contain my signature to be notarized.
They said they never even heard of apostile stamp...
Is there anyone from LA area who had a hard time getting through this?
Thanks. |
I actually got my criminal background check from LA a little over a week ago, got it notarized, and got it apostilled all on the same day. I called up a mobile notary and had her come in to the police station to notarize the signature of the commanding officer who was signing my background check, but later realized that that wasn't necessary*. After getting that done, I took it to the County Clerk's office and had it authenticated, and then took it to the Secretary of State's office to get the apostille.
*My mobile notary didn't sign the document herself, she only stamped it. When I took the document to get it authenticated, a lady there said that there was no signature from my notary (I didn't know she had to sign it as well) and that they couldn't authenticate it. But if I went to another floor, they could notarize my signature and then they could authenticate my signature. So in other words, I could have just taken my background check directly to that office on another floor and gotten it notarized there, then taken it to get authenticated, and then to the Secretary of State's office. I THINK...
Anyway, let me know if you have any questions or need something clarified and I'll try to answer. I'm still waiting for my visa confirmation #, so I'm not in Korea just yet. |
Thanks a lot for your info.
But I'm still kind of confused.
Didn't they ask for your signature on the document to notarize it at all?
What they're telling me is that since there is no signature line on the original copy for me to sign, I have to fill out this form where I swear that the document is not fake, sign that form, and then attach it to the photo copy of my criminal background check.
Did they actually notarize your original copy? If so, how in the world did you manage to do that? All the notary publics I went to basically said there's no way they could notarize the original document (especially without my signature) and gave me that 'are you freaking stupid?' look...
To be honest, I do feel like an idiot because nobody else seemed to had any problem with this.
So should I just bring my background check to the County Clerk and try to get it notarize there?
I live in Glendale and the closest County Clerk's office is in Norwalk as far as I know. It's about 30 minutes away and I don't want to take a chance of waisting my gas and time for nothing.
Can you just Email me at [email protected] instead?
Thanks again for your help. |
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Mdvl_lady50
Joined: 22 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 4:01 am Post subject: |
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| I had a similar experience in Arizona. I had to be fingerprinted by the local cops, then send the prints to the West Virginia FBI (Arizona will not do criminal background checks for people wanting visas). FBI was very expeditious -- then I had the apostille nightmare. Arizona Secretary of State would not do it because the document did not originate in Arizona, and it was not notarized. FBI will not notarize CRCs. I then was given erroneous information from Arizona Secretary of State's office that if I basically wrote out an affadavit swearing that the CRC was true and had that notarized it might fly to get the apostille. That proved to be untrue. I ended up calling the FBI in West Virginia where the CRC was done, and was told that I needed to send the docs back to West Virginia - Secretary of State. Called them the next day, and they were very helpful. I expressed mailed everything back last Wednesday afternoon, and just this last Saturday received my CRC back with the lovely apostille document. The school in Korea that has hired me has everything from me except the CRC/apostille. I'm doing the fed ex thing this a.m. |
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tired of LA
Joined: 06 Nov 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 5:31 am Post subject: |
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| Did you get your background check done by a local police department or by the state? If you got your background check done by the state, then you don't need to get it notarized. I had my background check done by the state last May and told them that I needed to get it apostilled. They sent a letter with a original signature and stamp. That was all that was needed to get it apostilled. I then took the 2 documents downtown to get it apostilled, took about 30 minutes. |
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darkhorse118
Joined: 12 Jan 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:08 pm Post subject: |
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Thank you so much guys.
It's all taken care of now. |
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fighton
Joined: 27 Jan 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:29 pm Post subject: |
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| darkhorse118 wrote: |
Thank you so much guys.
It's all taken care of now. |
Good to hear...I was just about to send you an e-mail. I'm from La Crescenta.  |
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darkhorse118
Joined: 12 Jan 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 4:59 pm Post subject: |
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| fighton wrote: |
| darkhorse118 wrote: |
Thank you so much guys.
It's all taken care of now. |
Good to hear...I was just about to send you an e-mail. I'm from La Crescenta. |
Cool~ I used to hang out there a lot back in 90's.
Why don't you Email me anyway so we could share some info.
I'm a gyopo (Korean-American) so I could show you around if you don't know anyone in Korea.
Hope to talk to you soon~ |
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saybanana
Joined: 28 Mar 2006
Location: LA
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| Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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The process took about a week to do. I got my California digital fingerprint thing done, and in less than a week I got my results from the state. Its just a plain piece of paper, nothing fancy. I took it to several notaries, before I found one that can do it. He swore me in.
Took it that same day to Norwalk or somewhere far from Glendale along the I-5, took about 20 minutes waiting at the county clerks office. Then I drove back up to Downtown and got the Apostille and that took about 30 mins to get a big shiny gold seal.
I was like its all worth it, until I got to Korea and no one has asked to see my criminal record. So I dont get it.  |
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