Some common used adoption terms

My blog is littered with terms that are used for international adoption. Most people would be unaware of the meaning of many of them (I know I wouldn't before we entered this process). I'm going to post several here with the definitions used by our adoption agency.

Dossier- "As complex as it sounds, a dossier is basically a collection of required documents that is sent to a foreign country (Russia in our case) in order to process the adoption of a child in Russia's legal system.

Notarization- "Notarization is basically the "act of witnessing" by the Notary Public in accordance with the laws of the respective states. It involves signed documents and requires the notary to ensure the signers identity and willingness to sign".

County Certified- This is an extra step required by some states to verify the person doing the notarizing of our paperwork.

Apostille- "Apostille is a french word which means certification. It is commonly used in English to refer to the legalization of a document for international use under the terms of the 1961 Hague Convention abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for foreign public documents. The Apostille is done by the Secretary of State in the state where the document is originated. It basically means that the Secretary of State acknowledges/verifies that the person notarizing your paper is a true notary and that they are currently commissioned with the state. An additional sheet of paper with the state seal will be added to each document."

So that hopefully explains the meaning of some of the paper chasing we have been doing lately!