<blockquote>cinnamon20 altuser41 you can correct me po pero my understanding is in doing stat declaration, both parties must be present fbefore the lawyer. I'm more on being safe kasi money and time and your visa are at stake here kaya I'd rather find someone na nasa Pinas to do the Stat Dec for me. </blockquote>
@BeBBang, yes I totally agree with you, that is the ideal practice.
But in my opinion, nasa discretion ng Notary Public kung pipirma sila kahit absent ang declarant.
Kung pipirma sila, good. Kung hindi, no choice but to bring with you the declarant.
Kung yung bisa ng Stat Dec ang tatanungin, wala naman sigurong pagkakaiba whether the declarant is present or not before the attorney, as long as 1) nakapirma ang declarant at 2) na-notarize ang document.
Just to be clear this is not to encourage everyone to do the same, I am just trying to present options. Kung sa tingin niyo ay alanganin yung naging hakbang namin, feel free to do what you think is right. 🙂