Our Document Concierge experience is now available nationwide.

Absolutely! Clients in our  our full-service prepaid plans get true nationwide access. Please reach out to schedule a call to see how we can help. 

For our on-demand service, we are only live in the California Bay Area at the moment. Check back soon or join our waitlist to find out when your city goes live. 

As of 2023, more than 40 states have officially allowed RON (Remote Online Notarization) which can be done remotely via video and relies on third party KBA (Knowledge Based Authentication). This option is ideal when it is certain that a wet-signature will not be required for the transaction in question and a PDF copy will suffice. We are happy to connect you with a remote online notary in a state that allows it even if the state you or your client is in hasn’t passed a RON law yet (like California). If you are an attorney and want to know if this totally above board it is! You can learn more here. 

For cases when a paper original is needed, a signer has to physically meet with a notary and sign the notary’s journal for the notarization of their signature to be complete (in states where notaries are required to keep journals).

The notary also has to physically examine the signer’s ID and ensure that they are signing the document of their own free will which requires a physical meeting.

The following is a list of acceptable forms of ID:

• • An identification card or driver’s license issued by a state government.
  • A U.S. passport issued by the State Department of the United States.
  • A passport issued by a foreign government, provided that it has been stamped by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service or the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service.
  • An military identification card issued by any branch of the armed forces of the United States.

If any of the above forms of identification are not available, or it would be excessively difficult for the document signer to obtain them, notaries can use the oaths of a credible witness or two to satisfy notary identification requirements.

In California, the two individuals have to be over the age of 18, have valid identification ready for inspection and must swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that they personally know the signer. They will also need to be present at the time of witnessing and sign the notary journal.

In most other states the notary has to personally know a credible witness who then swears that they know the signer. At present only Arizona, California and Florida are a few of the states where the notary doesn’t have to personally know the credible witness.

Without a valid ID or a credible witness who the notary may or may not need to personally know it will not be possible to lawfully notarize a signature.

Please contact us directly if you have any additional questions!

Contrary to popular belief, notaries do not notarize documents, they notarize signatures. They are required to do the following:

• Examine the document for completeness.
• Check the notarial certificate for compliance with state law, if there is one preprinted.
• Identify the document signer
• Confirm the signers’ capacity to understand the document: Notaries can witness signatures even they are not familiar with the language on the document. However, they must be able to communicate with the signer.
• Administer the Oath/Affirmation or take the Acknowledgment
• Complete the Notarial Certificate by placing their signature, dating and sealing the document.