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June 5, 2012

How to find a bilingual notary public

How to find a bilingual notary public

How to find a bilingual notary public Many states prohibit a notary public from providing notary services to someone who they can not communicate DIRECTLY with. This means no translators allowed. Therefor, if you have a signer who does not speak English, you will need a bilingual notary public to notarize their signature.

Notaries who advertise as bilingual.
Many notaries advertise themselves as bilingual. Some don’t even specify which two languages that they speak that makes them bilingual. Most people would guess that the pair of languages would be Spanish and English. You will find native speakers of Spanish, children of Latin American immigrants, and home-grown Anglos who will claim to be bilingual — but not all claims were created equal.

Some people are proficient in both languages enough to be a certified translator. Some can speak, but can’t write. Many can communicate on a simple level in their second language as well. The notaries you have to watch out for are the ones who know only a few words of Spanish and promote themselves as bilingual notaries to get a few extra jobs, when they clearly are causing more trouble than anything else. Test your bilingual notary out on the phone If a notary claims to be bilingual, half of them have a translator in the back room who is not always there and not always available. That is a semi-fraudulent claim of bilingualness if you ask me! Others can not function in the language if your question goes beyond, “How are you, and what is your name?”. Talk to your bilingual notary on the phone and see how capable they really are.

Test them before you book them in your calendar. How do I find a bilingual notary public? 123notary.com has a wide selection of bilingual notaries speaking every language from Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Farsi, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, (American) Sign Language, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Zulu (not necessarily in that order). Just do a search, and on the upper right hand side of the page you can filter your search by typing in the name of the language. There are actually speakers of many more languages than mentioned above, but those are the common ones. We even had one or two notaries who spoke Chaldean, Tigrean, and Twi among other languages. Don’t use the term Notario Publico The Spanish term Notario Publico is very different from the American position of Notary Public. Notaries are forbidden from using the Spanish term in their advertising in most states. American notaries are forbidden from giving legal advice and are of a much more common position than a Latin American Notario which is a position almost as high as an attorney.

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Is it better to be bilingual or speak Spanish?
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November 15, 2011

Where Can I find a Chinese Speaking Notary?

Where can I find a Chinese speaking notary public?

At 123notary.com, we receive all types of inquiries from many types of people all the time.  Where can I find Roger Smith, he is a notary in Louisiana?  He notarized a document for me a year ago, and now I can’t find him.  I refer the inquirer to the Louisiana notary division, since they have the addresses of all currently commissioned notaries in the state.  I also get a few people asking me where they can find a notary in India, or Thailand. I refer them to the embassy, or ask them to find an attorney in the country in question.  I give sensible advice, and steer people the right direction, but honestly, I don’t have a lot of information myself that is good for answering most of the questions I get.  The harder requests are requests that I would LIKE to be able to fulfill, but sometimes it’s hard. 
 
Where can I find a Chinese speaking notary?
123notary.com has many bilingual notaries. You can use the LANGUAGE FILTER on the top right of the search results page after you do a search by zip code. Many of our bilingual notaries are Chinese Speaking notaries, however, they are all spread out, and there are dialects too.  Someone who knows Min-Nan-Yu only might not be fluent in Hakka for example.  These are Southern dialects from Guang-Dong and Southern Fu-Jian by the way.  The more common dialects are Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taiwanese in American metros.  You might find many Cantonese speaking notaries in any big city, but we have relatively few advertising on our site.  You can do a search by zip code and then use the language filter on the upper right side of the page.  Try inputting the term Cantonese, and then try Chinese as a second search. See what happens.  I cannot guarantee results because people join our directory daily, and change their language information from time to time, and drop out from time to time as well. 
 
If you can’t find a Chinese speaking notary on 123notary…. then…
The document signer needs to speak the same language as the notary in California and many other states. As a practice, even if your state doesn’t require it, the signer should be able to communicate directly with the notary.  You could try the Chinese yellow pages, or ask around in your metro’s Chinatown. There will be plenty of Chinese speaking notaries, but they might not advertise much as their business might come from word of mouth or (peng-you tui-jian gao-su peng-you) as the case might be.
 
It is common for Chinese people who function mainly in Chinese to pick service providers who also speak their language.  However, this might not be a good idea.  If your English is “Good enough”, you might be better off with an English speaking notary who is really good at what they do, and who is familiar with commonly notarized affidavits and documents. Just my opinion. Choose the skill set before you choose the cultural affinity if you have a choice!

To find a Mandarin speaking notary, just look up Mandarin in the language filter on search results. To find a Taiwanese speaking notary, just look up Taiwanese in the language filter. To find a Cantonese speaking notary, just type the word Cantonese in the language filter in the upper right corner of the search result pages. Honestly, the word “Chinese” will give you much wider results than these dialect names, but in NYC or San Francisco, you might find the dialect of your choice!  “Zhu ni hao yun!”.

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Can you notarize a signature in Chinese or another alphabet?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=18784

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Can a notary witness a will or notarize one?

Notary procedure for Affidavit of Support Documents

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