Friday, June 29

'Matricula Consular' IDs not reliable enough for Notaries

Now that the US Senate has killed the illegal Alien Amnesty bill, here is an interesting fact from the National Notary Association, via their 'National Notary Now' email newsletter:

SITUATION: A signer comes to you requesting that you perform a jurat notarization. When you ask him for identification, he hands you a "matricula consular" card, an identification document issued by Mexican consulates to Mexican nationals outside their country. You have never seen the card before and can't seem to find anything about it in your state Notary statutes or handbook.

Is this an acceptable form of identification when identifying someone for a notarization?

ANSWER: In general, no. While the matricula consular contains a photo and address of the card bearer, it does not contain a physical description, one of the key criteria for establishing satisfactory evidence of a signer's identity. While some local government agencies and private businesses, such as banks, may accept the matricula consular as identification, it is generally not reliable enough for Notaries. There is particular concern about the quality of the screening process in issuing the cards.

Only one state currently has laws explicitly recognizing the matricula consular as satisfactory identification: Nevada. States that don't have statutory criteria for acceptable identification documents technically allow the matricula consular for notarizations by default, though a Notary always has the option in those states of not accepting it. States that do have a list of acceptable identifying documents (e.g., California, Florida) do not specify it in statute as an allowed identifier. - National Notary Association

This identity document is so questionable that you cannot use it to open a bank account in Mexico, use it as an ID in Mexico, or even use it to enter Mexico despite the fact that (in theory) it is only issued to Mexican Citizens.

So what type of identity document is a Mexican National supposed to present as a reliable form of identification?

A Passport issued by their own country and perhaps even a Mexican drivers license. Of course, a Greencard, or border crossing card issued by the US would also be acceptable, as would a US drivers license, provided they can manage to get to Maryland to obtain one. (Reminder: Half of all Mexican Nations in the US are here legally.)

I wonder what kinds of warnings US banks are ignoring by accepting these documents as forms of identification?


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4 comments:

Consul-At-Arms said...

I've quoted you and linked to you here: http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2007/06/re-matricula-consular-ids-not-reliable.html

MaritimeLinks- Editor said...

Thank God that amnesty bill was shot down. I cannot imagine what the aftermath of an amnesty of that magnitude would be- not to mention the flood of family members from the resulting chain migration.

I would not trust any foriegn IDs in the US. There is no reason why we should unless they are passport, along with US government papers (workers visas, or travel visas)

Fred Fry said...

I agree for the mostpart. Keep in mind that some travelers will not need a visa to enter the country, although in that case, they will still have a stamp in their passport noting the date they entered the Country.

Also in some cases, showing a drivers license is all that is needed, even a foreign one. However, to do business in terms of living here, there needs to be proof of residency. In that case, places like banks and DMV should at least check for a visa or green card to see that they are here legally.

(OK, who is going to post that you can't tell if a person is a foreigner or American....)

Anonymous said...

I do not agree with this at all. You people taht are saying this must be 90% American and by 90 percent I mean that you too came as immigrants to this country when it was still ruled by native americans. I wish that you could be standing where we stand and living in the same conditions that we must live in so that you can see how cruel it really is to treat us this way as if we were not even human beings like yourselves. Why can you just not learn to treat us as equals and accept that we are the same. It is just as if slavery never ended because believe it or not our situation is very similar to slavery. the U.S. is making a big deal about Latinos being legal in the U.S. when they should really be focusing on other matters such as war and political problems and just accept that we are all the same. We are all HUMAN so just accept it and deal with it.