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I sometimes need to have documents notarized while travelling abroad. How can I find a notary in a foreign country? The U.S. embassies and consulates will notarize things for me, but this is inconvenient and expensive.

Specifically, I'm looking for this kind of service in the south of France / northern Italy.

EDIT

In my specific case, I need a simple signature verification on a one-page U.S. form. In the U.S., I could walk into any Kinko's and get it done in 5 minutes for $10.

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Changing question title to make this less 'broad'. – Ankur Banerjee♦ Sep 29 '11 at 10:06
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American embassies and consulates can notarize documents so that they can be used in the USA. A foreign notary may not be sufficient in some cases. – user27478 Sep 29 '11 at 12:22
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Note that a US public notary is not at all the same thing as a French notaire. What specific service do you need? It's would be pretty weird to need to visit a notaire while traveling, so I don't think that's what you're after. – Gilles Sep 29 '11 at 20:41

2 Answers

up vote 9 down vote

I used to just take my documents to the city hall and ask to have them certified. The term to use is "certifier conformes". You will need both the copies and the original so they can verify that they are, in fact, exact copies. They will then sign the copies and stamp them with "certifié conforme".

Mind you, I moved to the US 13 years ago so things may have changed since then, but I doubt it.

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Sorry, but “photocopies certifiées conformes” no longer exist. They used to be a legal requirement in many circumstances, but now one swears that the copies are true on one's honor, there is no longer a requirement that the certification be performed by a municipal employee and town halls no longer offer this service. This changed around 1997 (give or take a year or so); it took a couple of years for people to learn about the change, but now if you walk into a town hall and ask for a “photocopie certifiée conforme” you're likely to get a blank look. – Gilles Oct 6 '11 at 0:01
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Thanks for the info! That might have happened late in 1998 because I still needed photocopies certifiées conformes for my American college applications towards the beginning of 1998. – Phong Oct 6 '11 at 17:48
up vote 4 down vote

There is a list of Italian lawyers and notaries published by the Canadians. Maybe this might help you:

http://www.tradecommissioner.gc.ca/eng/document.jsp?did=6763

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