In today’s global society, it’s not at all uncommon for a Notary to receive a request to notarize a non-English document, as was the case in last week’s “What Would You Do” scenario; however, if the Notary is not fluent in the foreign language, there are issues that can arise.
In general, most states do not expressly forbid Notaries from notarizing non-English documents. The concern in these cases, however, is that the Notary (a) won’t know exactly how to describe the document in his or her official notarial journal, and (b) more importantly won’t be able to determine if the document contains blank spaces or missing information.
In last week's scenario, we learned that the Notary's high school French courses fell short of fluency, so the best option for this Notary would be to refer the signer to another Notary who reads and writes French fluently.
If that is not possible, the Notary may be able to proceed with the notarization as long as the notarial certificate itself is in English and it is permitted by his or her state.
Here’s what you said about handling foreign language documents
A number of this month’s respondents expressed caution and concern when it comes to notarizing foreign documents.
“Notarizing a document that you cannot read is like signing a blank check,” said Maryland Notary James Witthar. “You don't know what your liabilities are.” Witthar further recommended referring the signer to their nation’s consulate or embassy, which may be able to provide such services for their citizens.
“It won’t be easy to detect fraud, so it’s probably best not to perform the notarization,” agreed California Notary Tina Duong.
“Taking a high school French class is not enough experience to translate official documents,” said California Notary Katrina Martinez, who is herself a bilingual Notary. “My first language is English and I have been speaking Spanish for over 10 years, so I will notarize Spanish documents. However, sometimes embassy documents use high-end wording, in which case I enlist a native speaker at my place of business to translate.”
Other Notaries, like Colorado Notary Julie Brickley, are used to performing these types of notarizations, as long as the Notary certificate or statement is in English or a language in which the Notary is fluent, and the Notary can communicate directly with the signer.
“I scan the documents for blanks (lines and colons are the same in all languages) and look for the signer’s name throughout the document,” said Brickley. “I ask the signer if they know what the document is. As a security against fraud, I scan the document using Google Translate to see if what they told me is accurate. As long as they can present ID acceptable by state laws, I proceed with the notarization.”