Authentication Clarified

I have received many questions about my previous post, so let me explain.

We will send a dossier to China. This dossier contains a number of documents listed below. These documents have to go through a sealing process which is outlined below.

Dossier Documents:
Adoption Petition
Birth Certificates
Marriage Certificates
Employment Letters
Financial Statement
Physical Exam forms
Police Reports
Home Study
I797C


Sealing Process:
1. Notarization - The above documents have to be notarized.
2. Certification - The above documents have to go to the County Clerk for them to certify the notary. Then the documents go to the Secretary of State for their certification of the notary.
3. Authentication - The above documents go to the US Chinese Consulate for authentication. This is the blue seal that is attached.

There are a few documents that have a six month expiration date (Marriage Certificate, Physical Exam forms, and Police Reports). We are approaching that time marker, so to avoid having to redo these documents I went ahead and sent them for authentication. This is what we received.

We are waiting to have the home study and I797C form completed. These are the only documents that have yet to be completed to begin the sealing process. Once these forms are received they will go through the same notarization, certification, and authentication steps. Then we will have all the documents compiled for our dossier.