Code of Federal Regulations Title 22. Foreign Relations § 22.181.6 Documentation and certification

(a) Transmittals of concluded agreements to the Assistant Legal Adviser for Treaty Affairs pursuant to § 181.5 must include the signed or initialed original texts, together with all accompanying papers, such as agreed minutes, exchanges of notes, or side letters. The texts transmitted must be accurate, legible, and complete, and must include the texts of all languages in which the agreement was signed or initiated. Names and identities of the individuals signing or initialing the agreements, for the foreign government as well as for the United States, must, unless clearly evident in the texts transmitted, be separately provided.

(b) Agreements from overseas posts should be transmitted to the Department of State by priority airgram, marked for the attention of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Treaty Affairs, with the following notation below the enclosure line:  FAIM:  Please send attached original agreement to L/T on arrival.

(c) Where the original texts of concluded agreements are not available, certified copies must be transmitted in the same manner as original texts. A certified copy must be an exact copy of the signed original.

(d) When an exchange of diplomatic notes between the United States and a foreign government constitutes an agreement or has the effect of extending, modifying, or terminating an agreement to which the United States is a party, a properly certified copy of the note from the United States to the foreign government, and the signed original of the note from the foreign government, must be transmitted. If, in conjunction with the agreement signed, other notes related thereto are exchanged (either at the same time, beforehand, or subsequently), properly certified copies of the notes from the United States to the foreign government must be transmitted with the signed originals of the notes from the foreign government.

(e) Copies may be certified either by a certification on the document itself, or by a separate certification attached to the document. A certification on the document itself is placed at the end of the document. It indicates, either typed or stamped, that the document is a true copy of the original signed or initialed by (insert full name of signing officer), and it is signed by the certifying officer. If a certification is typed on a separate sheet of paper, it briefly describes the document certified and states that it is a true copy of the original signed by (full name) and it is signed by the certifying officer.