Remote online notarization states: how authorization and interstate recognition work

Notaries are commissioned by states, and each state decides what its notaries may do. For a long time, notarization required the signer to appear in person before the notary. Starting in the 2010s, states began passing laws that let their notaries perform notarial acts using audio-video communication, and the pace increased sharply after 2020.

Today most states have permanent laws that authorize remote online notarization. Many of them follow the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, which includes provisions for notarial acts performed using communication technology, or model standards published for the mortgage industry. A small number of states have more limited rules, and the details keep changing as legislatures amend their statutes. A federal bill that would set national minimum standards for remote notarization has been proposed in Congress several times.

Because the list changes, the right way to check is by state: the Secretary of State or the notary commissioning authority of each state publishes whether its notaries may perform remote notarizations and how they register.

Under most remote online notarization statutes, the notary must be physically located in their commissioning state during the session, and the law of that state governs the act. The signer can usually be anywhere: in another state or, under conditions, outside the US.

This has a practical consequence. A title company in a state with limited remote notarization rules can still close with a seller who signs from home, as long as the notary is commissioned in a state that authorizes RON and follows that state's rules. The notarial certificate names the notary's state, and the record, journal and recording follow that state's requirements.

The second half of the answer is recognition. States generally recognize notarial acts performed by notaries of other states, in the same way they recognize a paper notarization done across the border. Most states have a statute that says so directly, often based on the uniform notarial acts laws, and a notarial act that is valid where it was performed is generally treated as valid in other states.

That is why a deed notarized remotely by a notary commissioned in one state can be recorded in another. The receiving state is not asked to authorize remote notarization itself. It is asked to recognize a notarial act that was valid under the law of the state where it was performed.

Recognition does not mean every recipient accepts every remotely notarized document. The practical limits sit elsewhere.

County recorders:

each county decides how it receives documents. Many accept electronic documents through e-recording, and many states require recorders to accept a paper copy of an electronic record certified by the notary. Some counties have their own practices, so ask before a closing.

Excluded documents:

some states exclude certain documents from remote notarization or follow separate rules for them, for example wills, codicils and certain trust documents in many states.

Recipient policies:

banks, lenders, courts and agencies can have their own policies about which forms and certificates they accept.

Identity rules:

states set requirements for identity proofing, such as credential analysis and knowledge-based authentication, and for how many attempts a signer gets.

Retention:

states set how long the notary must keep the recording and the journal, which is why retention periods differ between notaries.

1. 1 Identify the notary's commissioning state. On ENotary, every session shows the notary's state before it starts.
2. 2 Check whether the document type is excluded in the state whose law governs the document.
3. 3 Ask the recipient whether it accepts a remotely notarized document and in which format.
4. 4 For documents going abroad, check whether the destination requires an apostille. See online notary and apostille.

Every notary in the ENotary network is commissioned for remote online notarization in their state, and each session applies the rules of the notary's commissioning state: identity steps, certificate wording, journal and recording retention. When your company brings its own notaries, the same applies to their state. Read the basics of remote online notarization or see how the notarization audit trail records each step.