Certified Copies - cheapest way?

GoingToOz

Hello,

I need to get a ruck of certified copying done, when I rang a solicitor, they quoted me £5 per copy :eek: this is going to fetch me about £100!

Does anyone know a cheaper way of getting certified copies?

pavlovs_dog

there are loopholes in this - it depends on who the immigration people will accept as important enough to certify a copy.

if they accept the same sort of people as the uk passport service, for example, you should be fine - most people will have a 'friend' in one of those business who will do it for free.

when i had to have my driving license and passport applications countersigned (same sort of problem), i was really coming unstuck, until someone pointed out to me that, as a sole trader, my boss was effectively CEO of the company, and perfectly eligible to sign for me :j

sometimes you have to think outside the box with this beaurocracy stuff

HTH

Altarf

pavlovs_dog wrote:

until someone pointed out to me that, as a sole trader, my boss was effectively CEO of the company, and perfectly eligible to sign for me

Unless your boss's company is a limited company, he was not eligible to sign. The list of acceptable countersignatories is here - http://www.ukpa.gov.uk/faqs/faq.asp?strAreaNo=321_1&intelement=454

shazrazmataz

Have you tried your local magistrates ? they do it for free :j

What stage of the process are you ?

Middlers

As a police officer I often have to sign such things. It may be tedious but your local constabulary will help you.

GoingToOz

Thanks for all the help and advice all.

Shaz - free will do nicely! Did you have to book an appointment, or turn up and wait til one was free? Also, could you take your own copies, or did they want to copy them themselves?

I am at the early doors satge, just getting started on the visa app - but have got a job and a sponsor, and the visa i am going over on can (allegedly) be done in a few months tops (fingers so crossed they are knotted!).

ltlmiles5

Shaz and Middlers - thanks for that. Have to remember that for next time. When my husband had to get his passport verified last time for me to come to the UK as his spouse, my mother-in-law got his WHOLE passport done and spent an absolute fortune! She's very generous like that, but not very good with money.

Good to know there are other ways around it...

Bossyboots

shazrazmataz wrote:

Have you tried your local magistrates ? they do it for free :j

What stage of the process are you ?

Our local magistrates have now refused to do this anymore so the local solicitors are picking up the work while at court. The person certifying the copy is supposed to take the copy themselves, otherwise they cannot truly be sure that the document is the same. This is one of the reasons why our magistrates have stopped doing it but some of the solicitors still take the risk and certify them anyway, although they do have time while hanging around court to compare the documents to the originals whereas in the office they wouldn't.

Our local police won't certify documents, even when they too are standing around the court with nothing else to do while waiting to give evidence.

Our local banks have really tightened up on the use of certified copies now and will only accept documents with the personal name, company name and address of the person certifying the document clearly stamped on it. They mean stamped as well, you cannot just write it on anymore. I don't know if this is a national thing or just something picked up on in my area but I know it is most of the banks in the town now taking this line.