Notarisation is not merely a rubber stamping exercise. Reliance will be placed by parties and officials in other countries on the authenticity of the documents that have been notarised. Accordingly, notaries must follow a strict procedure. A document is notarised by the notary signing and affixing his notarial seal to the document. By notarising a document, the notary verifies the authenticity of the facts set out in the document. In most cases, the notary will need to meet you at a face to face meeting so you will need to make an appointment. The reason for this is that the notary is required to identify you from your personal documents and ensure that you understand the nature and effect of the transaction that you have asked him to notarise. Appointments usually take between 15 and 30 minutes. Most clients need to see a notary urgently and we are usually able to offer appointments within 24 hours. You will need to bring to the appointment satisfactory evidence of your identity. Generally this will need to be a current valid passport together with a recent utility bill or bank statement showing your current residential address. For corporate clients, the notary will need to carry out a company search to verify the existence of the company and to establish who the directors of the company are; in most cases, it is the directors who have authority to sign documents on the company’s behalf. The notary will usually ask to see copies of the documents that need notarising prior to the appointment. This will enable him to check that everything is in order and in a fit state to be signed. Occasionally, he will ask for amendments to be made to the documents.