Power of attorney for USA

Question: I need a Power of Attorney to be used in the USA. My husband is currently in Italy for an extended period of time. I am going to buy a property in Florida. I am buying it with a mortgage. They require a  Power of Attorney  from him to be used at closing while he is not in the U.S. The bank is telling me that my husband has to sign the Power of Attorney here in the U.S. or, if overseas, at a U.S. Embassy or U.S. Consulate. He lives in Bari, where there is no U.S. Consulate, and he cannot travel. Can you help us?

Answer: A U.S. citizen can sign a Power of Attorney in Italy to be used in the US without the need to visit the US Embassy or a US Consulate.

Many of our U.S. clients have completed real estate and financial transactions in the U.S. based on a Power of Attorney notarized in Italy by an Italian notary or by a U.S. notary with a license to perform a Remote Online Notarization (RON), without the involvement of the U.S. Consulate or Embassy.

Although we have adopted this model thousands of times in our international practice, we still occasionally find some foreign entities, like financial institutions, title companies or lawyers, not familiar with the international treaties or conventions and thus reluctant to immediately accept it. In these cases we explain to them how it works and they realize there is no legal ground to discriminate between a domestic and a foreign notarization. If the foreign notarization is in a foreign language, a certified translation makes it acceptable in the receiving country.

The notaries we use in Italy for this kind of deals type up the Power of Attorney entirely in English, including the notary block. To meet Italian legal requirements, the notary block will also be in Italian.

Italian steps for a notarized document to be used in the U.S.

Our office will:

1. Liaise with the U.S. entity that needs to receive the notarized document and assist draft it with content that satisfies U.S. laws as well as the policies and requirements of the subject that will need to receive it in the U.S.;
2. Arrange a meeting with a U.S. notary who has a RON license or arrange a notarization meeting, even at the home of the signee if he/she cannot travel; a U.S. RON can usually be performed for ties to the United States such as the citizen or property or business transaction have to be attached to the U.S. in some way; 
3. If the notarization is done by an Italian notary, we validate the Power of Attorney so that it is legally acceptable in the U.S. or any other foreign country (for a document to be used in the U.S. this means to acquire an apostille certificate);
4. If necessary, we also provide a certified legal translation.

Each case is different and the best way to proceed depend on the specific circumstances. We efficiently carry out the necessary steps from start to finish minimizing the burden on our clients. We check each step with the involved parties to make sure everyone is in agreement and satisfied with the process and the document specifics so that are no surprises at closing.

We have worked on the preparation and validation of thousands of international Power of Attorneys.  We offer comprehensive services nationwide tailored to the needs of each case.

Related information:

• Power of Attorney
• Legal Translations
• Real Estate