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An official website of the United States government
An official website of the United States government
Notarial services are for all nationalities and are by appointment only. Normally the document to be notarized is for use within the United States, although there may be exceptions. If you have multiple documents to be notarized, you should only make one appointment.
Examples of documents we can notarize:
Acknowledgements: Acknowledgem
Affidavits: Written declaration made under oath of affirmation or a sworn statement. Examples include Marriage affidavit (Ledigkeitsbescheinigung), criminal record affidavits, paternity affidavit, affidavit concerning lost passport, etc.
Notary services we cannot provide: Consular officers cannot authenticate U.S. state documents such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce decrees, death certificates, university degrees and transcripts, etc. A consular officer cannot perform a Medallion Signature Guarantee. An Apostille cannot be obtained from a U.S. Embassy. Scroll down below for more information about Apostilles.
On the day of your appointment, you must:
DS-3053: To notarize a DS-3053 Statement of Consent: Issuance of a U.S. Passport To a Minor Under Age 16 (PDF, 345K), please review the instructions listed on the form, the information fields that must be completed, and bring your original, valid, government-issued photo ID as well as a photocopy of both sides. As the U.S. Department of State requires that this form be notarized, this service is performed free of charge.
Power of Attorney (in conjunction with U.S. passport applications): When both parents are unable to be personally present to apply for a minor’s U.S. passport, and they wish to designate a third party to do so, they may sign a power of attorney (POA) before a notary public. This POA must contain specific data fields; see a sample. Note that photocopies of both sides of each parents’ original, valid, government-issued photo ID must be included with the POA. As the U.S. Department of State requires that this form be notarized, this service is performed free of charge.
The document can be notarized by an Austrian notary public (a list of English speaking “Notare” is available below) and because Austria and the United States are parties to the Hague Convention on the Legalization of Foreign Public Documents, there is an alternative procedure for the notarization of Austrian-origin documents destined for use in the United States. This alternative notarization procedure is called an Apostille, and is provided by the Austrian Government. This process legalizes Austrian documents for use in the United States.
For more information about the Apostille process please see the following https://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/travel-stay/documents-and-authentications-apostille/authentication/apostille/
The Apostille cannot be obtained from a U.S. Embassy.
The Apostille is a validation stamp ensuring that a certain document is recognized in certain foreign countries (countries that signed the Hague Convention treaty).
Basically, a document is only valid in the country in which it was issued. Validation for recognition in another country used to be a very complicated and time-consuming matter and involved, in hierarchical order, several authorities of the issuing country, and, as a final step, validation by the Consulate of the country, in which the document was to be recognized.
In order to facilitate recognition of a document abroad, an international treaty regarding mutual recognition of documents was signed by many countries, including the U.S. and Austria.
This treaty is called the Hague Convention.
According to that treaty a document originating in one Convention country is recognized in all other Convention countries if it bears the so-called Apostille stamp, which is a validation performed by the superior office in the country and state (province) where it was issued. In the United States the Secretary of State and the Deputy Secretary of State of the individual U.S. states provides the Apostille (Designated Competent Authority(ies)).
In cases where one or both countries are not part to the Hague convention, the old validation procedure involving the Consulates is still used.
Please note that in cases where both countries have signed the Hague convention, the Apostille procedure has to be followed. The convention expressly rules out the old validation procedure performed by the Consulates.
