Lucky you. That's because the visa-office specific instructions for Buffalo changed, and the requirement for notarized copies disappeared (at least for Buffalo. The London guide still inflicts this misery on those poor applicants).
The Visa office specific guide for Buffalo, IMM 7048 E, changed at least twice in 2009. One version (09-2009) had the following instruction on page A-1:
Gather documents as listed. Check each item on the checklist and attach the checklist to your
documents (a paper clip will do). Place all documents in a sealed envelope. Do not send originals unless
otherwise stated. Send notarized photocopies of all documents except the police certificates, which must be
originals. If your documents are not in English or French, send a notarized (certified) translation with a copy
of the originals.
But the next revision (10-2009), had this:
Gather documents as listed. Check each item on the checklist and attach the checklist to your
photocopied documents (a paper clip will do). Place all documents in a sealed envelope. Do not send
originals unless otherwise stated. If your documents are not in English or French, send a notarized
(certified) translation with a copy of the originals.
So now, it looks like the notarized copy requirement pertains to translated documents. (This same change was made to CEC applications). A similar change was seen in the general instruction guide. If there was any discussion of this on this site, I missed it, so it seems to be a largely unheralded change.
But it seems the matter has not gone away entirely, there's a recent thread here on the notarization of documents for CHC-London. So it now appears that whether or not copies must be certified/notarized rests with the local visa office.
So - I interpret this to mean that photocopies are no longer required to be certified for applications to Buffalo (thank you CIC!) - does anyone have different information?
