Certified True Copies
Certified True Copies of Your Documents
Which documents do people certify most often?
- Passports and PR cards, the single most requested item, often for banks, foreign tax authorities and citizenship files
- Degrees, diplomas and transcripts for credential assessments like WES and for foreign employers
- Driver’s licences and photo ID for financial institutions
- Birth, marriage and death certificates when the recipient accepts certified copies
- Citizenship certificates and immigration documents
- Corporate records, letters and contracts
One important exception: some agencies insist on seeing originals or ordering fresh ones, and IRCC specifies for certain applications who may certify. Check your instruction letter, and if it names who can certify, bring it along so I can match the wording exactly.
How does the certification process work?
Bring the original document. That part is non-negotiable, because the certification states I compared the copy to the original in front of me; I cannot certify from a photo, a scan or a photocopy of a photocopy. I make clean copies at the office, so you do not need to bring your own, then I stamp, sign and date each certified copy. You walk out with your original untouched and as many certified copies as you need.
How much does a certified true copy cost?
The first certified copy is $45 and each additional copy or additional document in the same visit is $20 . Ordering several copies of a passport page at once is far cheaper than coming back later, so think about how many each institution needs.
Can a certified copy be used overseas?
Frequently, yes, but many countries now require the certified copy to carry an apostille from Official Documents Services before they will accept it. Because ODS only accepts wet-ink, original notarizations, certified copies destined for an apostille must be made in person at my office; nothing about that step can be done remotely. Tell me the destination country and I will prepare the copy with the exact certificate wording ODS expects.
Certified true copy, notarized copy, ‘true copy’: are these the same thing?
Institutions use the labels loosely, which causes real confusion. In Ontario practice they all point to the same act: a notary public examines the original, compares the copy, and certifies the copy as a true copy of the original produced to them. What matters is the certificate wording, because some recipients, foreign banks especially, prescribe exact language, and a generic stamp gets bounced. Bring the recipientu’s specification if one exists and my certificate will mirror it precisely.
How do institutions verify the certification?
Through me. The certificate carries my name, signature and seal as an Ontario notary, and a verifying institution can confirm my status in the Law Society of Ontariou’s public directory in under a minute. That traceability is the entire value of the service, and it is why unverifiable stamps without a verifiable licence behind them fail compliance checks.