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Diploma and Transcript Notary Services

\ As a service to Texas A&M students and alumni, the Office of the Registrar offers notary services for official university documents produced by the Registrar (e.g., diplomas, official transcripts, and verifications). There are no charges for the notarization services provided by our office.\ \ Notary services are available by appointment or document drop off only. To request an appointment, email registrar-notary@tamu.edu, and please include:

• your UIN
• type of Texas A&M University document(s) to be notarized
• whether the documents need to be Apostilled
• contact number (optional)\ \

A member of our Notary Services Team will reach out to you to confirm your appointment date/time or to schedule a date/time to pick up your documents.\ \ Questions regarding the notary services provided by the Office of the Registrar should be directed to:\ \ Office of the Registrar\ Texas A&M University\ registrar-notary@tamu.edu

What is a Notarized Document?

A notarized document is one which has been denoted with a stamp (or seal), indicating the signature on the document is legitimate. Notaries in the Registrar's Office witness the Registrar, or other authorized academic official, sign a statement attesting to the authenticity of a Texas A&M University document. Then the notary will sign and place his or her notarial stamp near a statement which acknowledges the notary witnessed the document signing. A notarized document helps to convey to the recipient that the document presented to them is official and authentic.

What types of documents will your office notarize?

The following documents may be notarized:

• Official Texas A&M transcript from the Registrar's Office. The transcript must originate from our office to be notarized. For more information, visit the Order Transcripts page.
• Original Texas A&M diploma. A duplicate diploma may be ordered if you do not wish the original to be notarized. Information on ordering a duplicate diploma can be found on the Duplicate Diplomas page on our website.
• Good quality copy of a Texas A&M diploma. The Office of the Registrar cannot make copies; you must provide your own.
• Verification of Enrollment or Degree Verification Letters produced by the Registrar's Office.
• Other Texas A&M University documents and letters may be notarized by our staff.
• However we recommend you contact our office prior to bringing these documents to our office. We MUST witness the signature being written on the document, therefore the academic official signing the letter or form must also be present in our office for the notarization.

Do I have to get my transcript and/or diploma notarized by your office?

Yes. In most cases the third party (e.g., business, foreign government, etc.) requires an additional security measure such as a notarization and possibly an apostille to attest to the authenticity of the document. In order to obtain such a certification regarding the authenticity of the document, an authorized academic official must certify via signature that the document is a true, correct, and original diploma or transcript in front of a notary public.

What are the procedures for notarizing a Texas A&M University document?

1. Bring the Texas A&M University document(s) which need notarization to the Office of the Registrar. Or you may obtain the document here in our office (i.e., official transcripts, enrollment/degree verification letters, etc.).\ \
2. Tell our front counter staff you need notarization assistance. They can direct you to one of the notary publics in our office to begin the notarization process.
3. If you need an official transcript notarized, you may purchase the transcript at the front counter and then after printing the transcript they can direct you to one of our notaries here in the office.\ \
4. Present the document needing notarization and your picture ID to the notary public.\ \
5. Our notary will then coordinate with any needed academic officials here in the office to research, certify, and sign the document in the presence of the notary.
6. If your document needs to be signed by another academic official on campus other than those in our office, please make sure to have made these arrangements in advance for the person to be present at this time to sign the document.\ \
7. Once our notary has witnessed the academic official sign the document, he or she will sign and stamp the document, record it in our documentation, and then present the notarized documents back to you.

What if I cannot bring the documents to your office, could I mail them to you or have my relative/friend bring them instead?

Yes.

• If you wish to mail the documents to our office for notarization:

• Send the document to our office at either:\ \

  For mail delivered by the United States Postal Service use the deliver address below:	For mail delivered by FedEx, DHL, UPS, or any other courier (other than USPS and TAMU Campus Mail), use the delivery address below:
  Attn: Notarization Texas A&M University - Office of the Registrar P.O. Box 30018 College Station, TX 77842-3018	Attn: Notarization Texas A&M University - Office of the Registrar General Services Complex 750 Agronomy Road, Suite 1501 0100 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-0100
  - Include a written and signed request for our office to notarize the enclosed documents and provide instructions regarding the return address the documents will need to be mailed.
  - If the documents will be too large to be sent in regular U.S. First Class envelopes, please also include postage paid, self-address packaging for the documents to be returned back to you.
  - To better meet your timetable, you have the option to provide a pre-paid shipping label should you wish to use a faster means of delivery. You can purchase one through the carrier of your choice, or by using eShipGlobal. You would then email us the label for notarized document requests, or include in your documentation that you will be sending to Austin for Apostille.
  - If you would like us to mail your documents to a third party recipient, you will need to provide written authorization to allow us to release your notarized documents to the third party.
  - You may provide this written authorization by sending a letter or a signed copy of the Third Party Authorization form. Either option will need to include the name and mailing address of the third party in which you authorize our office to receive the documents.\
  \
  - If you would like to have your relative/friend bring the documents to the Registrar's Office for notarization:
  - Complete and sign the Third Party Authorization form.
  - Have your relative/friend bring the documents, the signed Third Party Authorization form, and valid photo identification for him/her to the Registrar's Office.
  - They will need to inform the staff in our office that they need assistance with notarizing documents and present one of the notaries in our office with all of the aforementioned required items.
  - The documents will then be notarized and released back to your authorized third party representative.

What is an Apostille?

An apostille is an additional form of authentication issued to documents for use in countries which participate in the 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization of Foreign Public Documents. The completed apostille certifies the authenticity of the signature of the notary. A document which has been certified with an apostille are to be considered acceptable for legal use in all Hague Convention participating nations. Apostilles may be obtained from the Texas Secretary of State (or the United States Secretary of State) confirming that the academic officials and notaries in the Registrar's Office are authorized to certify such documents in their roles as notary publics.\ \ For more general information regarding apostilles, you may wish to read The ABC's of Apostillesbrochure created by the Hague Conference on Private International Law's Permanent Bureau or visit their webpage regarding the Apostille Convention. For specific information regarding the apostille process in Texas, visit the Texas Secretary of State's Apostilles/Authentication of Documents webpage.

What are the procedures for obtaining an apostille for my notarized Texas A&M University document?

1. Bring or send the documents which must be notarized to our office. The documents must be notarized first before the apostille can be obtained.

2. Once the documents are notarized, you may take or mail the documents to the Texas Secretary of State to acquire the apostille.

\

• Documents needed by the Texas Secretary of State for apostille processing:
• You will need Form 2102, which can be found at: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/authinfo.shtml.

• A $15.00 fee is required by the Texas Secretary of State for each document which needs an apostille attached. Fees may be paid by personal checks, money orders, LegalEase debit cards, or Master Card/ Visa/or Discover credit cards. Checks or money orders must be payable through a U.S. bank or financial institution and made payable to the Secretary of State. If paying by credit card, fees are subject to a statutorily authorized convenience fee of 2.7 percent of the total fees, and Form 2101 must also be included. Form 2101 may be found at: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/statdoc/statforms.shtml#CPF\ \

• The Secretary of State will attach the apostille and will then forward the documents. According to the Authentications Unit's webpage states to please allow at least 10 business days apostille processing for any mailed documents.If you are mailing the documents to the Texas Secretary of State's Authentications Unit, a postage paid, addressed envelope must be provided for them to return the documents to you or your intended recipient.

Other Important Things to Note:

• Please contact the country where your documents are to be presented to verify what is required before placing your request.\ \
• The notarization process takes approximately three to five business days. The apostille requires another ten business days. These times do not include the transit.\ \
• Overnight shipping may be available at your expense. You can purchase a prepaid shipping label through the carrier of your choice, or by using eShipGlobal.\ \
• The U.S. Postal Service is the ONLY mail carrier able to deliver an express mailing to a P.O. Box.If your documents need to be sent back to you or another recipient through a P.O. Box, then you will need to use provide postage paid packaging from the USPS.\ \
• If you choose to use the US Postal Service, please be advised we cannot process envelopes or packages parcels over 13 ounces that have postage stamps. These must be handled by a retail service associate at a Post Office due to US Postal security regulations.

Diploma and Transcript Notary Services

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