<p>Although I am not a parent, I am that this forum could help me with a small problem I am having.</p>
<p>I am an incoming college freshman, and have a job related to research which I will start as soon as I start college in the fall. It is a program involving at least a hundred students each year. Because I am out of state, and can’t get to the college until school starts, the program coordinator has requested that I fill out an I-9 form and send it to the college by early August, attaching copies of the documents I used to prove my identity. Furthermore, they say that I need “a find a public notary who can review and sign off on your acceptable documents for identity and employment authorization” for Section 2, generally completed by an employer.</p>
<p>I have tried calling the FedExs and UPS stores in my area-Maryland, if that matters. I have tried calling other places listed on the Internet as having notaries. Libraries in my area do not offer this service and the county government has notaries, but authenticating documents is apparently not something notaries can actually do, as said by the woman I visited as the circuit court this morning.</p>
<p>I suppose my question is this: are there any other places that generally have notaries that would be willing to complete Section 2 for me? Somebody suggested the bank I use, but I get the impression that those notaries are for financial situations. I’m really starting to not care at this point that I complete this form in a timely manner, and simply get it done once in college, as this as been rather frustrating. I apologize if this post is not explained clearly, and I thank you for any advice that you may have for me.</p>
<p>Section 2 can’t be completed by a notary, it has to be completed by the employer. You need to call back the program coordinator. She or someone at the school will need to review your documents.</p>
<p>My daughter had this problem last year for her job (which was in a state she was not in at the time). Their instructions were to have it done at a UPS store but although UPS notarizes they will not do I9 forms. She got it done by a person at the bank (it was not a problem at all - no questions asked and no fee charged). By the way, it happened to be a Bank of America where she has an account. </p>
<p>My first impression initially was that the section had to be completed by the employer. However, the form does allow for an “authorized representative”, although it is a bit vague on the details.</p>
<p>I guess I will try having it done at the bank. I also have a Bank of America account so hopefully this will be the last step for me! Thank you very much for your help, all of you.</p>
<p>Any notary can notarize a signature (and many banks will do so), but that particular section is supposed to be signed by the employer or their representative who has physically examined the documents.</p>
<p>The I 9 thing with the notary is a little tricky - they sign a separate form which the employer supplies which basically says I saw this piece of ID and therefore the I9 is OK (obviously in legal terms). When my daughter had to get this done I did a little on-line looking into it and there are those in the legal community who question this practice. I believe that when she actually started and was in the proper state my daughter did have to show somebody employed by the company the same identification.</p>
<p>I do hiring for a law firm and having an outside, unaffiliated notary sign the I-9 would never be allowed. And notarization simply means that the notary has authenticated the signature of the person who provided the ID and who signed something in his or her presence, it doesn’t authenticate any documents.</p>
<p>The place where I work does testing and assessments for various programs. One does I-9 authentication through PAN (Performance Assessment Network). I am not sure if this is only for certain employers or for the public in general, but you could check out their website to find out.</p>
<p>What zoosermom says. I have never heard of this practice with I-9. Notaries only certify that they have seen the ID of the person who signed something in their presence. They do not verify employability of said person or their documents’ authenticity. How lazy can that hr department be?! Most employers nowadays use everify where the check can be done very quickly:</p>