Alright, now we've gotten most of your paperwork in order, the Travel Office is gonna ask you to get it all notarized.
(NOTE: If you have questions specifically about the seminary documents & attached affidavits there will be a blog post specifically concerning that. This page is just for getting your paperwork notarized & if necessary, certified. See "Seminary Transcripts & Diploma Requirements" for all seminary queries.)
I'm not sure how this works in other states, but Georgia is especially heinous & complicated. After you've rounded up all your paperwork, (I suggest getting a clip and a manila folder to put all of it in one place so you don't lose it in the hustle & bustle of things) you will need to hire a notary to get all this stuff notarized.
This may sound like a more expensive deal than it actually is. The REAL pain in the butt is getting it all authenticated by your state, but we'll get to that later. If you have time, ask a member of you ward if anyone is a public notary, and offer to buy them lunch for doing all of it for you. The clincher is gonna be the clearance letter AND having your Seminary & Institute Representative (or a CURRENT Seminary teacher) to sign the corresponding affidavits AND transcripts while your notary watches him or her sign it. Same thing with the police clearance letter. The notary CANNOT notarize it if he/she doesn't see the signature.
Usually there will be someone in your ward who's a notary, if that doesn't work you can ask your bishop if he knows of anyone. And if that doesn't work, the UPS store actually does notaries for a minimal cost. So you do have options there, it's not hard to find a person who can notarize your paperwork.
I made the unfortunate mistake of having 3 different notaries from 3 different counties. I'll explain why this was a nightmare later, but for now I'll just say, try to keep the same notary if you can or at least have them be from the same county.
Now, in the state of Georgia, you have to get your notarized documents certified by the counties that the notary resides in. I looked at the requirements for other states, and I didn't see anything about that for other states, so you might not have to do that, but CALL the phone number for your Secretary of State just in case!!! It saves you a lot of swear words and a lot of heartache, believe me.
Mistake #3: ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS CALL IN ADVANCE! I can't tell you how many phone calls I made back & forth between the notaries, the travel office, the police station, back to the travel office, the police station, the S&I Services, the travel office, the Secretary of State, the notaries & back to the Secretary of State! (You think I'm joking... but I'm not.) Have a list of questions you've written down, specifically about getting all of this crap notarized & authenticated CORRECTLY.
This brings me to our next stop, which is getting your crap certified. Now, if you don't live in Georgia, you may not have to do this, but I'm putting this in here just in case. If you live in a stupid state, like I do, they're gonna make you go to the Superior Clerk office in the Justice Building of every county of every notary you used to get your notarized documents certified, before they can be authenticated. (Like I said before, TRY to get 1 notary to notarize your paperwork, or at least notaries from the same county.)
So, lets say you have 3 different notaries from 3 different counties. Notary A is from Eff County, Notary B is from My County, and Notary C is from Life County. This means, that you have to take your documents from each county, go to each of the county's court houses & Superior Clerk & have someone certify the notaries you used. Yeah. It sucks. I know. You will also have to pay a small fee for this too, maybe 2 or 3$ for each paper, it's not too bad.
Okay, so you have all your paperwork notarized & (if necessary) certified! Now we'll move on to the next ordeal, which is getting your paperwork authenticated.
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