Notario Publico Is Not a Notary Public (New York Warning)

If somebody has told you that a notario publico can help with your immigration case, please read this before you pay anybody anything.

In many Latin American countries a notario publico is a highly trained legal professional, close to an attorney, who can give legal advice and prepare legal documents. In the United States a notary public is none of those things. A notary here verifies identity and witnesses signatures. That is the entire job.

The gap between those two meanings has cost people their cases, their money, and in some situations their ability to remain in the country.

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New York wrote a law about exactly this

The state took the problem seriously enough to legislate it.

Under the Executive Law provision governing advertising by notaries, a notary who advertises services in a language other than English must post with the advertisement, in that same language, the statement: I am not an attorney licensed to practice law and may not give legal advice about immigration or any other legal matter or accept fees for legal advice.

The same provision prohibits a notary from using foreign language terms in advertising that mean or imply the notary is an attorney licensed in New York or anywhere in the United States, and directs the Secretary of State to designate which terms are off limits.

Separately, New York makes it a misdemeanor to hold yourself out as a notary without being appointed, and for a notary to practice fraud or deceit in the exercise of the office.

So this is not a matter of etiquette. Advertising as a notario publico in a way that implies legal authority is the specific conduct New York moved to stop.

What a New York notary genuinely cannot do

Give legal advice of any kind, on immigration or anything else. Tell you which form to file. Fill in an immigration form for you. Tell you what a document means or what will happen if you sign it. Represent you before any agency or court. Charge a fee for legal services.

A notary can verify who you are, watch you sign, administer an oath, and complete a notarial certificate. That is a real and useful service, and it is a small one.

Warning signs

Somebody who calls themselves a notario, an immigration consultant, or a paralegal offering to handle your case directly. Anybody who says they have a contact at an agency, or who guarantees an outcome. Anybody who asks you to sign a blank form, or forms in English you have not had explained by somebody qualified.

Anybody who keeps your original documents. Anybody who will not give you copies of what was filed on your behalf. Anybody who tells you not to worry about what a form says. Anybody who asks for cash with no receipt.

And anybody who tells you that lying on a form is normal or harmless. It is neither, and the consequence lands on you rather than on them.

Who can actually help with immigration

Two categories, and only two.

A licensed attorney, whose admission you can verify.

An accredited representative working for an organization recognized by the Department of Justice. Many are nonprofits, and many charge little or nothing.

Both can be checked. Before paying anybody, ask which of the two they are and verify it independently rather than taking a certificate on a wall as proof.

Free and low cost immigration legal help exists in New York City, including through city funded programs and community organizations. It is worth asking rather than assuming that paid help is the only help.

What we do, plainly

We are a notary service. We notarize signatures, including on letters of support, affidavits and translator certifications, in person across the five boroughs and online from any state.

We do not advise on immigration matters, choose forms, complete applications, or tell you what to write. If you ask, we will say no and point you toward an attorney or an accredited representative, because that is the only correct answer.

If somebody has already taken your money for immigration help they were not authorized to give, that is worth reporting. Complaints about notaries in New York go to the Department of State, and consumer fraud complaints can also be made to the state Attorney General’s office.

Why the confusion is so easy to exploit

Nobody arrives at this misunderstanding through carelessness. The words really do mean different things in different countries, and somebody who grew up where a notario is a trained legal professional has every reason to assume the same here.

That assumption is what makes the fraud work. The person offering help is not usually inventing a credential out of nothing; they are letting a familiar word do the lying for them. Which is exactly why New York regulates the advertising rather than relying on people to know better.

If you have been caught by this, it was not naivety. It was a well worn trap.

Protect your documents

Two habits, whoever you end up working with.

Never hand over original documents you cannot replace. A legitimate professional works from copies and returns anything they hold. Somebody who keeps your passport, your birth certificate or your only copy of a court order has taken leverage over you.

Keep a copy of everything filed on your behalf, and a record of every payment. If you cannot get copies of what was submitted in your name, that alone tells you what you are dealing with.

Say it plainly to whoever asks

If a family member or a neighbor tells you about somebody who can fix their case cheaply, ask them the two questions from the section above: are they a licensed attorney, or an accredited representative? Then check.

Those two questions, asked before any money changes hands, prevent nearly all of this. Passing them on is worth more than any warning we could write.

Documents we are legitimately asked for

Plenty of immigration related paperwork does need a notary, and it is worth knowing which parts are ours and which are not.

A letter of support written by a family member or friend is signed in front of a notary. We verify the signer and complete the certificate; we do not write the letter or tell anyone what it should say.

A name discrepancy affidavit is common where records from another country spell a name differently. Again, the signer swears to the facts. We witness that.

A translator’s certification attached to a translated document is notarized. What is being certified is the translator’s own statement about their competence and the completeness of their work. No notary certifies that a translation is accurate.

And where a document is going to a foreign authority, it may need an apostille after notarization rather than instead of it.

In every case the pattern is the same: somebody else decides what the document says, and we verify who signed it.

Notario Publico Is Not a Notary Public