Sponsoring my Korean wife for permanent residency

[Korea2Canada]

My point is, outside of Canada, some countries (like Korea) do not have a certification system for translators. Any Tom,Dick, or Harry can run around shouting 'I'm a certified translator'. The arms length third party approach makes sense.

 

[Korea2Canada]

For each Korean document I should have:


1) Original
2) Translation
3) Affidavit (notarized)

So, each document will have 3 documents to make a 'set'. Correct?

 

[Korea2Canada]

What is a proper notarization?


1) The notary (and translator) signs and date only the affidavit for each document?

2) The notary does #1 and places an official seal on every page or just the affidavit?

 

[bartjones]

I'm not sure which route you're going, but if you are going to a translator/notary you don't need the affidavit. He'll prepare it. All you need are the 3 documents you get from the gu office. they take care of everything else.

 

[earthbound14]

They don't have to be certified. What the guide says is that if the translator is certified in Canada you don't need the affidavit. See here;

So based on that, what I did would be acceptable presumably. It worked for my son's citizenship. It gets a bit silly though. We translated the documents and the "notary public" (an English prof) signed an affidavit that they were translated accurately and a true representation of the original document. While the prof did not actually translate the documents, she was more than capable of comparing the two and determining that they were accurate and signing an affidavit to that effect, essentially acting as translator and commissioner authorized to administer oaths.

The whole thing appears a bit silly though. There isn't a list of certified translators, the person who can be a commissioner authorized to administer oaths is vague, there is no mention of it being a problem that the translator and the "notary public" cannot be the same person and this has likely been done a million times in the past. So why doesn't the government invest 100$ in providing translated copies of the original documents with slots open for people to fill in the correct information. If the two documents were provided together (originals and translated forms) and one was signed by some recognized member of society that is equipped to handle such things...i.e. a lawyer who has applied to do such work...then presto, the whole thing becomes much easier and far more reliable.

 

[Korea2Canada]

I'm not sure which route you're going, but if you are going to a translator/notary you don't need the affidavit. He'll prepare it. All you need are the 3 documents you get from the gu office. they take care of everything else.

I may use a local notary so going to bring this affidavit just in case they didn't do an english one before.

 

[Korea2Canada]

So based on that, what I did would be acceptable presumably. It worked for my son's citizenship. It gets a bit silly though. We translated the documents and the "notary public" (an English prof) signed an affidavit that they were translated accurately and a true representation of the original document. While the prof did not actually translate the documents, she was more than capable of comparing the two and determining that they were accurate and signing an affidavit to that effect, essentially acting as translator and commissioner authorized to administer oaths.

The whole thing appears a bit silly though. There isn't a list of certified translators, the person who can be a commissioner authorized to administer oaths is vague, there is no mention of it being a problem that the translator and the "notary public" cannot be the same person and this has likely been done a million times in the past. So why doesn't the government invest 100$ in providing translated copies of the original documents with slots open for people to fill in the correct information. If the two documents were provided together (originals and translated forms) and one was signed by some recognized member of society that is equipped to handle such things...i.e. a lawyer who has applied to do such work...then presto, the whole thing becomes much easier and far more reliable.

As far as I know a university prof. is not a commissioner of oaths. It must be a Judge, Magistrate, Lawyer, Notary Public. The translator is supposed to sign at one of their offices.

 

[bartjones]

I may use a local notary so going to bring this affidavit just in case they didn't do an english one before.

I think you're misunderstanding. The lawyer/notary has a "Notarial Certificate" which is a document that complies with the Korean rules for notarization. It's 2 pages and is written in both Korean and English. They supply it as part of their service. It's a pre-printed form that already has the lawyer/notary's information on it. They attach one page to the front of your original and translation, and one to the back. The translator signs the back page under oath and the notary/lawyer commissions the affidavit with his signature. They then apply a series if those red, waxy seal things you often see here, to each page, along with a gold notarial seal bearing the notary's information.

If you're going the lawyer/notary route you don't need to bring an affidavit, especially one like the one you have prepared, which is

(a) in English and completely incomprehensible to the guy doing the notarizing who probably doesn't speak or read the language,
(b) not in compliance with the Korean rules for notarization,
(c) not the pre-printed form the notary always uses and will probably insist on using

All you need to do is bring your wife's CBC, the documents from your gu office and any other docs that you're relying on that are not in English. Hand them in and they do the rest.

That's the independent translator/lawyer/notary route. If you're self translating or having a friend do it, you still won't need the affidavit as you will still have to attach the originals and translations to the lawyer/notary's own affidavit form, since even those kinds of translations still need to be notarized.

 

[Korea2Canada]

Okay, good to know they have everything they need on hand. I was thinking a local notary may not not have handled this before and would have no template to use. I'll have the wife make some calls to ensure they have the proper notarization documents in English. No, not self translating or having a friend do it. I'm having professional and impartial translations made by an impartial 3rd party who isn't a certified translator because there is no such animal in Korea

 

[bartjones]

So based on that, what I did would be acceptable presumably. It worked for my son's citizenship.

I'm not sure. You need two people to do a valid affidavit. The person making the statement that they translated the documents accurately (the "deponent) and the notary/lawyer who signs saying that he is authorized by the Ministry of Justice to administer oaths and that the translator appeared before him and swore under oath and under penalty of perjury that the words contained in the affidavit were true (the "notary").

So, if you're saying that you did the translations yourself and you were the "deponent" and that the English prof was the "notary" that would only be valid if the professor were someone authorized by Korean law to administer oaths and notarize affidavits. I don't know, maybe the professor is a Notary. You don't need to be a lawyer or judge to get that designation here. But if she wasn't, then your affidavit was invalid and you got very lucky.

I'm also assuming that you completed the process through the old Seoul visa office which allowed self translations and was very laid back about that kind of thing. You may not be so lucky this time when your application goes through Manilla where the rules are different and overworked visa officers are probably chomping at the bit to chuck your application in the reject pile so they can move on to the next one stacked up on their desk.

 

[bartjones]

Okay, good to know they have everything they need on hand. I was thinking a local notary may not not have handled this before and would have no template to use. I'll have the wife make some calls to ensure they have the proper notarization documents in English. No, not self translating or having a friend do it. I'm having professional and impartial translations made by an impartial 3rd party who isn't a certified translator because there is no such animal in Korea

Good plan. Have your wife call. These sorts of services are pretty common I believe. That's why I asked earlier where you were living. I'm in a suburb northwest of Seoul. Over the years I've used three different translator/notary services for various things in this town. I'm sure there are many more here if I wanted to look around.

Here is an affidavit from Immigration Canada site:

http://www.saskimmigrationcanada.ca/translator-affidavit/

That's a Canadian affidavit form. Note the reference to the Canada Evidence Act. The Korean one says essentially the same thing but takes a very different form.

 

[Korea2Canada]

bartjones: PM Sent

 

[Korea2Canada]

Since my translator and lawyers office will be seperate, the translator will have to go to the lawyers office to sign the affadavit right...everything at the same time affidavit+notarization.

 

[bartjones]

Since my translator and lawyers office will be seperate, the translator will have to go to the lawyers office to sign the affadavit right...everything at the same time affidavit+notarization.

Yes.

 

[bartjones]

bartjones: PM Sent

Got it and replied. As I said, don't think that you'll be going into the lawyer/notary's office making some kind of exotic request they've never seen before. Koreans require this kind of translation/notarization service all the time for travel/work visas and other foreign business they're doing. The lawyer/notary will no doubt understand exactly what you need.