Proposed adjustment to schedule of fees for Consular Services

[MtnMama]

The Department of State  is proposing an adjustment to their schedule of fees for Consular Services. . The Department is incorporating the domestic authentications fee into the Schedule of Fees and increasing it from $8 to $20.

Comments must be received by December 15, 2020. You can submit your comments at:

http://www.regulations.gov and search for the Regulatory Information Number (RIN) 1400–AE12 or docket number DOS–2018–0037.

Mail (paper, disk, or CD–ROM): U.S. Department of State, Office of the Comptroller, Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA/C), SA–17 8th Floor, Washington, DC 20522–1707

or Email: fees@state.gov. You must include the RIN (1400–AE12) in the subject line of your message.

All comments should include the commenter’s name, the organization the commenter represents, if applicable, and the commenter’s address.

The reason this may be of interest to some readers:

“These services support individuals, commercial organizations, institutions, federal, and state government agencies seeking to use certain documents abroad. In order to be recognized overseas, U.S. public documents may require authentication.

Authentication is the process whereby the signature and/or seal of a public official on a document is certified as authentic.

There are two kinds of authentication depending upon the country where the document is to be used. The first is with an Apostille for countries that are parties to the Hague Apostille Convention. The Department only issues Apostilles for federal public documents; U.S. states issue Apostilles for their documents such as vital records and notarials.

The second form of authentication is part of the chain legalization process. Under this process, the Department issues an authentication certificate for federal documents and for U.S. state authentication certificates certifying underlying state public documents.”

To read the notice go to:

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-10-16/pdf/2020-19926.pdf