What is a certified copy?
A copy issued by the office holding the original record, carrying a seal or stamp a photocopier cannot reproduce. Your own photocopy is not one.
Every agency in a name change wants to see an original or a certified copy of the document that authorized it, and every one of them refuses a photocopy. It is the first thing a clerk checks and the most common reason somebody is sent home.
How to tell one from a photocopy
- It was issued by the office holding the original record, not printed by you.
- It carries a raised seal, an embossed stamp, or a colored ink stamp — something a photocopier cannot reproduce.
- It usually carries a file or certificate number and the signature of a registrar or clerk.
- It is printed on security paper in many states.
- It has not been laminated. Lamination defeats the seal check, and several states refuse a laminated copy outright.
What is not a certified copy
- A photocopy or a scan you made yourself, however clear.
- The decorative certificate handed out at a ceremony. It is a keepsake, and no agency accepts it.
- A file-stamped or conformed copy from a court, which shows a document was filed rather than certifying it. Ask the clerk for a certified copy by name.
Keep one copy back for yourself. Agencies do return them, but not all of them return them quickly, and the one in the mail is not the one you can show anybody.
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