Law and Regulations Retrieving System

1. These Guidelines are formulated to facilitate the performance of the agreement on the use and verification of notarial deeds across the Straits reached among the Straits Exchange Foundation (hereinafter referred to as "SEF"), the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (hereinafter referred to as "ARATS"), and the China Notary Association (i.e., the Agreement on the Use and Verification of Notarial Deeds across the Straits; hereinafter referred to as the "Agreement") by courts and notaries.

2. "Courts" as used herein include courts of various levels subordinate to the Judicial Yuan.

3. "Notaries" as used herein include court notaries and civil notaries. "Civil notaries" refer to civil notaries under Article 24, candidate notaries under Article 27, and lawyers who are licensed as civil notaries with limited capacity for the purpose of attesting documents only and who are approved by the Judicial Yuan to practice lawyers' business concurrently due to geographic environment or special needs under the proviso of Paragraph 1 of Article 37 of the Notarial Act.

4. "Notarial Deeds" as used in the Agreement and these Guidelines include the attestation deeds made by notaries in accordance with the Notarial Act.

5. Matters to be performed coordinately by the courts, notary divisions of district courts (hereinafter referred to as "Notary Divisions") and notaries in accordance with contents of the Agreement are the mailing of copies of notarial deeds (hereinafter referred to as "Copies") and the verification of notarial deeds.

6. Attention shall be paid to the following matters for the mailing of copies:
(1) Kinds of copies to be mailed are limited to those involve inheritances, adoptions, marriages, births, deaths, entrustments, education levels, permanent residences, supports of dependents, rights to properties, tax affairs, patient histories, careers and professional certificates and relate to peoples in Taiwan area and Mainland area only. Copies beyond these kinds will not be mailed.
(2) In case of increase or decrease in the kinds of copies to be mailed under the preceding subparagraph, the increased or decreased kinds shall be otherwise determined through negotiation between SEF and ARATS.
(3) Copies shall be sent by way of mailing letters (in the attached format below) by various notary divisions and civil notary offices directly to SEF and then forwarding the letters by SEF to relevant notary associations in Mainland area.
(4) To facilitate the mailing of copies, when notaries accept various kinds of matters of notarization or attestation under Subparagraph 1, if the applicants express that the notarial deeds so made will be brought to and used in Mainland area, the notaries shall inform the applicants to fill out their intentions and area (e.g. province, city or autonomous region) in the remark columns of the application forms.
(5) If contents of notarial deeds involve matters relating to identities and properties etc. stated in Subparagraph 1, even the applicants do not express at the time of applications that the notarial deeds will be brought to Mainland area, the notaries may, on applications of the applicants or their heirs or other persons having legal interests in the notarial deeds, or ex officio, mail copies of the notarial deeds so made.
(6) For notarial deeds that were made by notaries before the Agreement became effective and that involve matters relating to identities and properties etc. stated in Subparagraph 1, if the applicants or their heirs or other persons having legal interests in the notarial deeds express such notarial deeds will be brought to and used in Mainland area, then the notaries may, on their application, mail the copies thereof.
(7) When the notaries make the notarial deeds, of which copies will be mailed, they shall mark on the upper right corners of the deeds the provinces, cities or autonomous regions in which the notarial deeds will be used, and shall produce and mail two copies of each notarial deed to SEF within seven days after the notarial deeds are made.
(8) For the matter of notarization or attestation of will, unless the applicants declare their willingness to make public their wills, whether orally or in writing, or the applicants will die after the attestations of wills are made, the copies thereof may not be mailed in accordance with Article 98 of the Notarial Act.
(9) For the production of copies, the notaries shall make the copies in the manner as provided for the production of transcriptions under Articles 96 and 97 of the Notarial Act, and shall affix the stamp of "copy" thereon. If copies are made by photocopies, the date of making of photocopies shall be specified and the photocopies shall be affixed with signatures and official seals or steel stamps of the notaries.
(10) To facilitate the access to and statistics of the matters, of which copies have been mailed, the clerks of notary divisions, civil notaries or their assistants shall make the annotation of "for use in Mainland area" at the spaces in the remark columns or other appropriate columns of the registers of notarial deeds and attestation deeds.

7. Attention shall be paid to the following matters for verification of notarial deeds:
(1) Courts, notary divisions or civil notaries may request for or accept verification to the extent where the notarial deeds have any of the following circumstances:
i. It violates the provision relating to the scope of acceptance of notary organs.
ii. Same matter is notarized at different notary organs.
iii. Contents of the notarial deed are inconsistent with entries in household registration or other files.
iv. Contents of the notarial deed are contradictory.
v. Text or seal in the notarial deed is ambiguous or there is alteration, deletion, or dubious vestige.
vi. It has other different proof.
vii. Other matter for which verification is required.
(2) If there are causes for verifications of notarial deeds in Mainland area which are provided for use at courts, the courts shall request by letter to SEF for assistance in the verification.
(3) In requesting SEF for verification, the courts shall state the reasons therefor and shall pay attention to causes that might lead to the refusal of verification such as whether the notarial deeds are affixed with other certifying seals etc.
(4) For the notarial deeds in Mainland area that are submitted for use in the courts, the respective court shall, before conducting the verification thereof, be cautious in avoiding the affixation with other certifying seals that might be a cause leading to the refusal of verification.
(5) After request for verification, the notarial deeds in Mainland area shall be presumed as true; however, the authenticities of their contents and the weights of evidences shall be determined by the courts according to the results of substantive investigations.
(6) If the requested verification violates the scope of verification, fails to state cause for verification, or the notarial deed to be verified is affixed with other certifying seal, the notary division or civil notary shall refuse the verification by stating the reason therefor.
(7) When verifying notarial deeds, notaries shall pro forma verify whether such documents conform to the originals or transcriptions of the real notarial deeds according to their formalities and intentions.
(8) The verification of notarial deeds shall be replied by letter to SEF within seven days after receipt of the letter requesting for verification. If it is difficult to complete the verification within the prescribed period, a notice therefor shall be given to SEF in advance.

8. The burden and prepayment of fees for the mailing of copies and the requesting or requested verification of notarial deeds shall be as follows:
(1) Fees for the mailing of copies and the requested verification of notarial deeds shall be charged according to the provisions regulating the most similar matters in accordance with Article 121 of the Notarial Act (refer to Articles 127 and 128 of the same Act).
(2) While requesting SEF for verification of notarial deeds in Mainland area, the verification fee shall be paid to SEF in accordance with "Regulations on Fee Collection for Verification of Documents Performed by the Straits Exchange Foundation".
(3) The request for verification of notarial deeds shall be handled in accordance with the Code of Civil Procedure, the Non-contentious Case Law, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Code of Administrative Procedure, and other relevant regulatory requirements, respectively.

9. These Guidelines shall be enforced from the date of promulgation; the same shall apply to the amendment hereto.