Notes on getting documents Notarized in Hong Kong

I got my HSBC closing docs a week ago and had to get a few of the docs notarized. Here are some of the things you should know.

1) You should first make an appointment to get your docs notarized at the US Consulate. You actually can walk in without an appointment (I had to do this since one of my docs wasn't marked properly so I had to go back for a walk in). They have a lunch break from 12-130PM so they'll make you wait outside until 130PM, then they give you a plastic placard to show that you are a walk-in.

2) It costs $30 USD for the first notarized document, $20 for each document thereafter.

3) Go through all your docs to make sure you know what you need to get notarized. Two of my docs had yellow stickies signifying that I had to get them notarized. But as I was signing and initial'ing the rest of my docs at the post office, I found one additional document that wasn't stickied at all. I ended up having to go back to the US Consulate the same day, without an appointment to get it signed. This added 2 hours to my ordeal.

4) While HSBC doesn't require your last two years tax returns, one of the forms they'll have you sign is a release giving them permission to get tax return transcripts direct from the US Government. I guess this is actually better for them as there's no opportunity to forge documents.

5) I paid HKD 127 to send the closing documents back to San Francisco by SpeedPost. They say it takes 3 days to get delivered, but in actuality, it takes 3 days to get back to the US and pass customs. From there it gets delivered to the local post office and delivered. If you take the breezeway to the Central Post Office, you'll need to go down one flight of stairs to send the parcel via SpeedPost as those are sent out from the ground floor.