Frank, she sent me a document that appears to me to be what I think of as a notarial affidavit of single status... basically it is a notarized statement that she was married to her ex on 10/19/90, they divorced on 6/1/94 and that she never remarried since then and that she assumes legal responsibility for the statement. The notary basically added a page certifying that she came to his office, made this statement and signed it in his presence. Nothing about the child mentioned. Is this similar in form to the notarial divorce certificate that you are referring to? This is a separate document from the actual divorce decree, which basically just says they were officially divorced on 6/1/94. If so, it seems it would be worth redoing the form and adding some words about "fostering" in it as you suggest. I assume there was no issue about your wife having full custody with just that statement in there. If so, that sounds very reasonable and a simple approach. Since her daughter now has her family name, if her ex was still involved in the child's life, he would have had a problem with the official name change, so the new name and a fostering statement in the notarial divorce certificate might work well together. Let me know if what I described is not the document you are referring to . Thanks much! 146999[/snapback] I think we're dealing with two notarial documents. The one you describe is almost identical to Jingwen's notarial single status certificate. Essentially, hers identifies her, states that she registered a marriage, was mediated a divorce and has not registered a marriage since. Like yours, her single status certificate makes no reference to the children. In addition, Jingwen had a second notarial divorce certificate, stating essentially the same thing about the marriage and subsequent divorce, but instead of stating that she had not registered another marriage, it stated that her children were fostered by her. 147002[/snapback] Thanks much Frank. If that was sufficient proof of custody in your situation where there were two children and nothing else was requested, that sounds like a great approach to pursue. Might not work with all VO's, but sounds like it is worth a try and I'll be thinking about plan B if that doesn't work.