A Gift Affidavit is a legal document used to prove that an item was given to someone as a gift. In a Gift Affidavit form, the person giving the gift (known as the “donor”) swears that an item is being gifted to the recipient (known as the “donee”) and that no payment is expected in return.
There are many situations in life that need to use a Gift Affidavit, such as giving money, cars, real estate, securities, etc. to others. Any kind of Gift Affidavit issued in the United States needs to be notarized and apostilled or authenticated before its use in other countries outside the United States.
If the destination country is a member of the Hague Convention of 1961, your document falls under the Apostille process (following Step 1-2);
If it's NOT a member of the Hague Convention of 1961, your document is required to go through the Authentication process (following Step 1-4).
Step 1: Draft a Gift Affidavit and have it notarized by a local notary
A Gift Affidavit usually contains the following elements.
The basic information of the donor and the donee, such as name, date of birth, nationality, ID information, address, and telephone number.
Details of the property being gifted.
The donor's signature and date of signature.
Notarial Certificate and the notary public's signature, date of signature, and stamp/seal.
Step 2: Get it authenticated or apostilled by the Secretary of State
For Hague Convention Countries, get it certified with an apostille by the Secretary of State. For a Gift Affidavit, it does not require additional certification by the U.S. Department of State or legalization by a U.S. embassy or consulate overseas to be recognized in a participating country. You are all set!
For Non-Hague Convention Countries, get it certified with authentication by the Secretary of State. Go to Step 3.
Step 3: Get it authenticated or apostilled by the Department of State
Have your Gift Affidavit authenticated by the U.S. Department of State.
Step 4: Get it legalized by the embassy of your destination country
Contact the embassy of your destination country to get the Gift Affidavit legalized.
Note: Please be aware of how old your notarized affidavit is. There are a few states that have set limits on how old a document can be. For example, documents issued from Virginia cannot be older than 12 months, and documents issued from Texas cannot be older than 5 years.
Then please mail us the original documents for further processing based on the instruction you received from our team.
That's it. Once the apostille or authentication process is completed, we will mail it to your mailing address, either domestically or internationally. Shipping costs apply.
We provide apostille, authentication, and embassy legalization services for other personal documents and corporate documents issued in 50 states and DC.
If you have any questions and do not know which service to order, please contact us by describing ① the type of the document, ② which state the doc is from, and ③ in which country the doc will be used, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
American Notary Service Center Inc. provides fair, fast, confidential, and professional document notarization and certification services for our clients. We also provide various assistance services to small businesses led by socially and economically disadvantaged groups. Our service helps small businesses obtain federal government contracts, gain a foothold in the market, and boost their sales. For more information, please visit our website at www.usnotarycenter.com, and contact us by calling 202-599-0777 or by email at info@usnotarycenter.com.