Please note: The Department of State and staff in the consular section are not responsible for preparing documents that need to be notarized.  The bearer of a document is responsible for understanding the contents of the document, indicating where they need appropriate signatures, and if required, arranging for witnesses.

Notary functions performed by consular officers abroad do not differ much from those performed by a notary public in the United States. The requirements that the person appear, establish his/her identity, show that he/she is not acting under duress, and that he/she understands the nature, language, and consequences of the documents are the same.

Notarial services are provided for American citizens and for individuals of any nationality requiring notarization of documents to be used in the United States. The most common requests include notarizing power of attorneys and affidavits.

Notary Services Require:

• Photo identification with signature; your passport or a government issued picture identification card or naturalization certificate may be presented;
• Witnesses, if your document requires witness signatures. Consular staff and Embassy employees cannot act as witnesses;
• Notary fee, $50 USD for each notary seal.

Services Provided Include:

Affidavits: Statements made under oath and sworn to before an official authorized to administer oaths. Affidavits are usually drawn up by attorneys or are set out in established forms.

Note: The Embassy takes no responsibility for the content of affidavits; however, persons who knowingly make false statements in an affidavit sworn before a U.S. consular officer may be subject to perjury charges under U.S. law.

Acknowledgment of signatures on documents which attest to the identity of the person executing the document.  Examples of common documents are deeds, powers of attorney, and wills.

Certified True Copies: Consular officers cannot certify true copies of civil documents including marriage certificates, divorce decrees, birth certificates, death certificates, academic credentials, etc.  You must obtain certified copies of these documents from the official custodian of the public record.

To request a certified copy of a Consular Report of Birth or Death, please click here for birth certificate and death certificate.

Consular officers are only able to provide certified true copies of the biographic page of U.S. passports, not the visa pages.

Note: Several U.S. states impose restrictions on the use of certifications of true copies of other types of documents, while other states do not permit them at all.  Certification of true copy laws also often change, if you have questions please visit the individual states’ Secretary of State website. Follow this link for information on how to contact the custodian of public records in your state.

Authentications: Consular officers abroad are not permitted to authenticate seals and signatures of notaries public and other officials in the U.S. They may, however, certify the Seal of the U.S. Department of State if this is requested in particular cases by the national authorities of the host country.

You can find information on how to authenticate your academic credentials by following this link to the Department of State’s webpage on authentications.

Please see the Department of State’s webpage on Notarial and Authentication Services for more information on notary services and document authentication.

Apostilles

If a document signed by a person located in the United States must be notarized for use in the Kyrgyz Republic, that document should first be notarized in the United States and then submitted to the office of the Secretary of State of the state in which the notarial was performed to be affixed with an apostille.  An “apostille” is a certificate issued by a designated authority in a country where a treaty called the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalization of Foreign Public Documents applies. See a model Apostille (PDF 9 KB). The apostille consists of 10 elements.  The Convention requires that all apostilles be numbered consecutively, with individual numbers applied to each apostille issued. Group or bulk numbers per customer rather than per document are not acceptable.

A document bearing an apostille is legal and valid in the Kyrgyz Republic as well as other countries that are signatories to the Hague Legalization Convention of 1961.

Please Note:  The Embassy cannot provide or certify official translations of documents.