Provincial Authentication
Have your Registration of Live Birth & Birth Certificate notarized by finding a local notary or sending it to a Notary in Nova Scotia, who will notarize the documents and then send those notarized copies to the Department of Justice in Nova Scotia for you.
You can contact practically any lawyer/law firm in Nova Scotia and inquire whether arrangements can be made to have your document notarized. Only lawyers and MLAs are routinely appointed Notary Publics in the Province of Nova Scotia, and nearly all lawyers have obtained an official Notary Public designation. You may also contact your local MLA to determine whether they have been formally appointed as a Notary Public.
The Department of Justice will check their records to determine that the person that has notarized the documents is a Notary for the Province of Nova Scotia. The document will then be sent to the Lieutenant Governor, who will authenticate that the person who notarized the document is a Notary. The document is then stamped with the Seal of the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia and is considered authenticated.
When you speak with the Notary, arrange that they send back your originals in a self addressed envelope you will provide and mail off the notarized copies to get authenticated with a 2nd self addressed prepaid envelope for the return of your authenticated documents along with your payment for authentication.
When sending notarized documents to the Department, please also include a contact name and phone number where you can be reached during normal business hours.
Allow up to ten (10) business days for authentication processing.
The fee for authentication is $26.50 cash for each document, cheque or money order payable to the Minister of Finance and must be paid before the authenticated document is delivered. If you are paying by cash, you must provide the exact amount. No change is provided.
Authentications address:
Department of Justice, Legal Services Division
1690 Hollis Street
Joseph Howe Building, 7th Floor
Halifax, NS B3J 3J9
You can arrange to pick up the documents in person at the offices of the Department of Justice (after the Department notifies you that they are ready) or have them mailed to you via regular mail. The Department of Justice does not track any documents sent via regular mail and expressly denies any responsibility for any documents that may be lost or damaged when sent through regular mail.
If you cannot collect the documents at the Department and you need them immediately, please include a pre-paid self-addressed method of returning them to you. You must provide payment for the authentication before the authenticated documents will be provided to you.
Please direct all queries regarding authentications to the Department of Justice - authentications@novascotia.ca
Notaries:
The Nova Scotia Barristers' Society has a very convenient “lawyer search” tool within their website, which will allow you to locate a lawyer by city, etc.
https://members.nsbs.org/LawyerSearch
Notary in Nova Scotia that has been successfully used:
Bland & Associates
5239 Blowers Street, Suite 11
Halifax, NS
B3J 1J8
(902)-492-9927
Fax: (902)-492-6984
Email: owen@lawhalifax.com
After hours/emergency contact number: (902)-404-9228 Ask for Owen Bland
Fees
We charge a standard $40.00 for the first document to be notarized, but charge on a sliding scale depending on the volume of documents to be certified. We charge $20.00 for the second document, $15.00 for the third and $10.00 for each extra document to be notarized. Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) is charged on top of our regular fees at 15%.
By way of comparison, you can see the fee scale for Red Seal Notary’s Halifax agents here, which are significantly higher:
http://www.redsealnotary.com/notary-fees.html
Fees for notarizations requiring travel will depend on the amount of time and distance involved. Please call for an estimate!
Registered mailing Instructions For BC & ROLB to Official Documents
- Copy the Cover letter template for yourself to use and edit the information that is correct at your time of mailing including amounts enclosed.
- Sign document with Blue Pen (First, Last name as usual)
- Attach one of the registered mail tracking stamps at the top right as shown in above example on your cover letter. You will get these registered mail stickers from the post office. Attach the other one to the receipt you get at the post office when sending. Put this in your binder for your records. Take a picture of your document or photocopy it and keep a record in your binder with a picture of the envelope.
- Send Registered Mail.
- When your documents come back, keep them in your binder (in plastic sleeves to keep them in good shape).
In this Process You Will Want to keep Copies of Everything
for your records!
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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==================
Done by the light of day this:
Second day of the twelve month of:
Two-thousand and Nineteen this common era.
To: Department of Justice, Legal Services Division
1690 Hollis Street
Joseph Howe Building, 7th Floor
Halifax, NS B3J 3J9
RE: Authentication Request for Registration Document
I am requesting authentication of the below document(s) that are enclosed:
- Registration of Live Birth
- Birth Certificate
I have enclosed $XX Money Order ($XX.00 per document) payable to the minister of Finance.
I affirm that I require this process "for business and private matters" and these document(s) will NOT be used for “fraudulent purposes.”
Please return to the address below in prepaid envelope provided:
LAST, FIRST MIDDLE
#123 123 Ave.
Vancouver, BC V3A 3V2
By: Authorized Representative: ___________________________________
John