Athens – Starting Tuesday, April 25, the U.S. Consulate General in Thessaloniki will begin offering weekly notarial service to residents of Northern Greece. The service, available to U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike, will be offered every Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. by appointment only.
“Since 2012, when consular operations closed at the Consulate, persons requiring notarization of documents for use in the United States had to travel to the American Embassy in Athens or wait for one of the Athens Consular Section’s periodic visits to U.S. Consulate General Thessaloniki,” said U.S. Embassy Athens Consul General Rosemary Macray. “We recognize that this was very inconvenient and, for this reason, the State Department authorized U.S. Consulate General Thessaloniki to start providing this service.”
Notarial services are one of the oldest traditional consular functions, dating back to 1792. The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 authorizes consular officers to perform notarial functions. Notarizing officers at U.S. Embassies and Consulates require the personal appearance of the person requesting the notarial service; must establish the identity of the person requesting the service; must establish that the person understands the nature, language and consequences of the document to be notarized; and must establish that the person is not acting under duress.
More information about notarial services is available at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal-considerations/judicial/authentication-of-documents/notarial-and-authentication-services-consular-officers.html. Appointments may be scheduled at Notaries Public.
There is no cashiering service available at the Consulate, so appointment holders are asked to bring a bank check for the exact payment amount. Information on fees can be found at the website above.
