Google “online notary” and use any one of them for $20. You video chat with a notary somewhere in America, answer some questions, hold your ID up to the screen, and that’s it. Now email the document wherever you want in the world.

American Notary When You Have to Go To the Embassy

Not everyone accepts online notaries … even though there’s no reason not to. In my case, title agency refused to. American notaries cannot legally notarize documents when they are outside of the country.¹ Two choices left: 1) fly to the United States or 2) Get an appointment at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem or the “satellite” embassy in Tel Aviv (thank you Trump and Friedman).

Medallion Signature Guarantee

This is something between American financial institutions … I found online that HSBC in Tel Aviv does it … didn’t get too far trying.

There’s an American guy somewhere with such a stamp though only a “Series B” stamp and I was rolling over my retirement account from business to personal, saving on fees. New contributions to a U.S. retirement account aren’t tax deductible in Israel, so no point in keeping it as a business account.

Would my financial institution accept it the “Series B” stamp? They didn’t know. I was offered to sign while they watched me on video and whatnot and then shipped them the original document. I was traveling to America in a few months, so I just waited.

When You Make Three Trips to the Embassy

Sigh. In Jerusalem, once you have your appointment, find a place to park, walk up a large hill, go through a security line and then another security line (which was fine – not busy), and they take your electronics, wait on line 7 to have your documents reviewed, wait on line 8 to pay $50 per document, and go back to line 7 to get the notarization. Once you’re there three times you get to know this stuff.

Why three times? Bank gave me half a dozen documents attached to email full of errors. Our names are spelled in various ways, various combinations of middle names, various use of English and Hebrew names … I ask them to correct everything. They do and send me back a single PDF with all the documents again. Then you make an appointment at the Embassy which you can usually get a few days out.

Haha. Actually, one document of the six didn’t need to be corrected so when they sent me back the single PDF … it was missing that document.

That led to trip 2 to the Embassy.

On trip 2 the “consular official” put the notary in the “witness” section instead of in the (unlabeled) notary section and didn’t use a stamp that said “notary”.

On trip 3 the “consular official” said … what that previous guy did was as wrong as a condemning a country for killing leaders of terrorist organizations that mass murder people and openly brag that they will do it again and again.² “Consular official” #3 signed a fresh document (I got no refund) and we insisted she add a stamp that said “notary” because it’s unclear to some banks in America that a “consular official” is actually a permanent notary … and this amazing “consular official” saved us a fourth trip.

Being Saved from Embassy Trip #4

The “consular official” said something wrong … this document appears to be missing something. The documents I received from America were on Letter or Legal paper. Israel uses A4 paper. Letter –> A4 is fine. What I didn’t notice is that Legal –> A4 cuts off the top and bottom which … is the first time I printed such a document and even so, usually it matters not.

This particular document had a title all the way on the top edge. So … shoot nugget. What do you do? Ah! The guy running the on-site cafe will print a document for you for $1.50/page! However, you must send the document to him via Whatsapp. How do you do that when the Embassy doesn’t let you take your phone in? You exit the embassy, get your phone, text him, then go back through security and back to the cafe.

Markup on coffee: 10%? Markup on piece of paper and ink? 150%! Why sell coffee?

Overnighting a Document to the United States

It is amazing that man has figured out how to move hundreds of us at a time through the sky at hundreds of miles per hour. Also, there’s a full lunar eclipse in Israel to the right of the plane.

The bank told us only a few days before the transaction that the notarization from trip 2 was no good. We could only get an appointment in time in Jerusalem.

Living in small country has benefits … if something isn’t in Jerusalem, you can find it in Tel Aviv. If something isn’t in Tel Aviv, you can find it in Jerusalem. In less than an hour from the Embassy in Jerusalem we were at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv (it’s actually south of Tel Aviv which helps).

Your choices to overnight a document to the United States do not include the Israeli post office. They include finding American couriers that no Israeli has ever heard of and these couriers have on and only one location: in “airport city” which is a bunch of warehouses, trucks, and no legal parking a few miles from the actual airport though requiring you to go through the airport main entrance and airport security.

Your choices are: FedEx, UPS, DHL … maybe others. There are no “FedEx” or “UPS” stores in Israel. No, no. Oh no.

I chose FedEx because a) I like the company / have only had good experiences with them including tracking down a package that the receiver claimed he didn’t get, and b) I was told they are most reliable for overnighting documents.

Moonrise. Seriously, that’s the moon over the Dead Sea. It was identifying as the sun that evening.

Finding FedEx

Looking for a big “FedEx” logo on a large sign in a strip mall? This is Israel! Come to think of it, they’re not big on strip malls at all.

Oh no … drive through airport security in Tel Aviv towards the terminal … just don’t go to the terminal. Make a right somewhere, pass a bunch of factories, guys welding cars, trucks parked at all directions, and person screaming at you for exiting at a gate back to the main road despite that you could drive there from the next road with no problem, and they just had to … open the gate which need not exist.

Try to avoid the underworld bosses, who, if they’re anywhere, this would be the place.

Hmm… GPS took me to three large buildings with entrances like this. Nothing FedExy about it. You can’t park anywhere around there … well, you could, in one of the many, many parking lots which the public has no access to, like this one …

Do not fear because once you drive around a bit trying to be a good citizen, you realize there are long lengths of one load roads with illegally parked cars and trucks along all of them. Well, might as well take one of those spots and walk:

When you finally go through one of the turnstiles to the three large unlabeled buildings are walk around some, ah, look at that in the distance!

FedEx Overnight Experience

It’s about $200 for which FedEx hasn’t charged me for some reason. I pre-printed the shipping label to save time and had I not come with one, I’m not sure what would have happened. You can’t actually access FedEx … you call a number on the wall of a security post, and a teenager comes out to get your papers and gives you no receipt.

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Being in Israel, the only pragmatic thing to do is rely on miracles. The no-receipt giving teenager delivered (get it? He got it. I mean, the package. He got it. Did you get it? Please make me stop, self.). We got there at 11:50am and the package was in New Jersey by 10:10 the next day, America time. Not bad.

Journey of A FedEx Package

The package then journeyed through Cologne, Germany, Memphis, Tennessee (FedEx hub), Newark, NJ (airport), and finally to its destination. Success. It’s there on time. 10:12am for a 1pm meeting!

“Oh, the title company (changing facts) cancelled because they weren’t sure the documents would be there on time.”

Sigh.

Nothing in this diary entry is legal advice. For information only. ↩︎
I wondered how long it would be after October 7th until the world turned on Israel for taking out terrorists. To be fair to the world, it lasted a lot longer than I thought. ↩︎

The Entire Aliyah Diary

Beginning and End

01. Aug 19, 2024: Preparation In America
02. Aug 25, 2024: First Few Days
03. Aug 29, 2024: Moving In
62. July 17, 2025: I MADE IT
75. Sept 14, 2025: Leaving USA Behind

Cultural Adjustment Fun

Cultural Adjustment Difficulties

On The Roads

Shopping

11. Oct 13, 2024: Packages. (חבילות.)
34. Feb 17, 2025: Finding Obscure Things
41. Mar 23, 2025: New Shopping Habits
44. Apr 6, 2025: Pesach Shopping & Osher Ad

Special Locations

23. Dec 29, 2024: The West Bank. (Shomron)
50. May 18, 2025: Casearia
52. May 25, 2025: Flowers of Kfar Rut
85. Nov 9, 2025: Living Cemetery Museum
93. Dec 12, 2025: Port Yafo (Jaffa)

Government and Bureaucracy

Politics and Thought

Travel: Indoors / Museums

Travel: Outdoors (Except Hikes)

Travel: Hikes

Travel: From Israel to …

54. June 4, 2025: Marseille and Avignon
66. Aug 11, 2025: Return to America 1
67. Aug 14, 2025: Return to America 2
70. Aug 24, 2025: US Price Compare

Aliyah Blog 74: Overnight Notary to America

American Notary from Israel in a Perfect World