Notary refused to notarize letter written in foreign language

Question

Today I needed an authorization letter notarized for a visa my daughter is applying for. Since I speak the language of the foreign country, I used that language for the letter. And when I went to my usual notary, he refused to notarize it because it is not in English (or, more properly, I guess, because he cannot understand the language).

After a brief search, it looks like this is fairly standard. But my question is why. Looking online, I find phrasing such as

The notary public is a commissioned representative of a state government and is charged with verifying your identity as the signer, ensuring you sign under your own free will, and witnessing the signing event.

Doing that doesn't require understanding the contents of the document. Other sites, including the corresponding the Wikipedia article, list steps that a notary should take, and none mentions "reading the document and understanding it".

So, the question is

Why is the notary required to understand the document I present him, when all that needs to be done is to certify that my signature is mine?

Answer 1

Various states have different laws about foreign language documents. Without knowing what state you are in, there is no way to answer.

Another consideration is whether just the letter is in the foreign language, or the notarial certificate too. There are states that would allow the document to be in a foreign language but not the notarial certificate. Since the notarial certificate is where the notary states what the notary did, such as administer an oath or listen to you acknowledge your signature, the notary must be able to understand it.

Answer 2

There may be a requirement saying "No notary public shall subscribe his signature or affix his seal, where a seal is necessary, to a document until it has been fully completed with respect to the particulars required for the purposes of the document" (Saskatchewan). If the document is written in Arabic and the notary does not know Arabic, he can't know if he is legally permitted to sign the document, even if your exchanges with the notary are all in a common language. There may also be a prohibition in serving as a notary for a transaction which you have a financial interest in – which requires that you be able to judge what the document is about (Florida). Another rationale could be invoked in Washington, that the notary must determine that "the signature is that of the person appearing before the notary public and named in the document" (hard to do in a language you don't know), also that "In certifying or attesting a copy of a document or other item, a notary public must determine that the proffered copy is a full, true, and accurate transcription or reproduction of that which was copied", also "that a person is the person described in a document". In other words, a notary may do more than just say "I saw this person sign their name here".

As for the specifics of Saskatchewan law, I don't see that refusal is necessary on the part of the notary, but in a regulated business, an abundance of caution is not unreasonable. If 5 out of 5 notaries refuse for the same reason, it probably is "established" in local law that you have to know the language the document is written in.