What is Remote Online Notarization? (RON)
Remote Online NotarizationPublished October 2024
NOTICE: “Permanent” Remote Online Notarization and Temporary Authorizations Due to COVID-19. Beginning in early 2020, many states addressed concerns over notaries’ and signers’ physical proximity by temporarily authorizing notaries to perform “remote” notarizations. Many such measures, typically authorized by executive order, were temporary authorizations that should not be confused with “permanent” statutory enactments of remote online notarization.
At this time, nearly all U.S. states* and the District of Columbia have enacted laws authorizing a notary public to perform a notarial act for a signer who is not physically present, but appears before the notary through use of real-time, audio/visual communications technology.
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* As of this publication October 2024, laws authorizing remote online notarization have been enacted AND are operative in all states except California, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina. States are in varying phases of implementation, which often includes drafting and adoption of administrative rules. California delayed implementation of its remote online notary law until 2030, or the date the Secretary of State completes the technology project that will enable RON to be implemented there.
Called “remote” or “online” notarization, this method of notarization enables a notary public to interact in real-time with a remotely located signer, while preserving all the assurances of notarial acts performed for physically present signers. For a remote online notarization, all the familiar and required steps of notarization are performed—only the means and manner of performing them are different.
1. Remote Online Notarization – Core Concepts. While the enacting states’ remote online notarization statutes and administrative rules are unique to each jurisdiction, they all reflect these fundamental concepts:
• A remote online notary public must be physically located in their commissioning state for performance of a remote online notarial act. Unless the enacting state has specified otherwise, the remotely located signer may be physically located anywhere.
• The requirement that a remotely located signer personally appear before a notary public is satisfied through use of audio/visual communications technology that enables an authorized, remote online notary public and the remotely located signer to see and speak with each other in real time. The technology must meet all performance standards specified in law and administrative rules. For example, the audio/visual connection must be of sufficient visual resolution and audio clarity to allow the notary to confidently interact with the signer and perform the steps of notarization.
• The requirement that a remotely located signer be identified by the notary during performance of a notarial act is satisfied through the most time-tested method of identification, and through modern, technological methods.
• Use of remote online notarization is not reserved solely for electronic document transactions. Multiple states that have enacted remote online notarization laws allow an electronic OR tangible (paper) document to be notarized in this manner. Notably, the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, Section 14A, authorizes remote online notarization for electronic and tangible documents.
2. Remote Online Notaries Public – Qualifications. States that authorize performance of remote online notarial acts have diverse qualifications for remote online notaries public, not at all unlike the diversity found in the qualification requirements for a traditional notary public commission.
The following, therefore, is a very generalized summary of minimum qualifications and requirements that must be met for a notary public to perform remote online notarizations (additional, detailed requirements apply in every state that authorizes remote online notarization).
A remote online notary public must:
1) Meet, at a minimum, the qualifications to hold a notary public commission (the “traditional” commission) and must have a current, active notary public commission.
2) Apply for a separate commission as a remote online notary public (where applicable); or register-with or notify their state commissioning officer of the intent to act as a remote online notary. The applicant or registrant must also report which remote online notarization technologies they intend to use, and submit an example of their electronic notary signature/seal.
3) Use only remote online notarization technologies that comply with any standards provided by state statute or administrative rule; or only technologies or platforms that have been approved by the state commissioning officer (if required by the enacting state) or that have self-certified their compliance, if applicable.
4) Comply with state statutes and rules governing notarial acts in general, and obtain training to ensure the notary is knowledgeable of the fundamentals of performing notarial acts and capable of using remote online notarization technology.
5) Maintain records of all remote online notarizations performed (a journal record plus recording of the remote online notarization’s audio-visual communication session).
3. Authorized, Remotely Performed Notarial Acts. Generally, a remote online notary public may perform the same notarial acts authorized to be performed under the notary’s “traditional” notary public commission. Some states have omitted certain acts from being performed remotely/online, for example noting protests. Other limitations on performance of a remote online notarization are based on the document type.
The format of the document—electronic, or tangible—also affects which notarial act can possibly be performed. When the document is electronic, the remote online notary may perform acknowledgments, verifications on oath or affirmation (jurats), and signature witnessing as necessary, because all signatures, verbal exchanges and completion of the notarial certificate can be executed or acknowledged in real-time, electronically, while the notary and signer are communicating and observing each other over the audio-visual communication technology.
When the document is tangible, however, remote online notarizations involving a verification (jurat) or a signature witnessing may not be performed under many states’ notary laws. All elements of a notarial act are performed “contemporaneously,” meaning all at the same time. It would be impossible for a remote online notary to complete the notarial certificate on a tangible document during performance of the remote online notarization, because the tangible document would be in the possession of the remotely located individual. (Remember, a notarial certificate is completed by the notary during performance of the notarial act, unless the notary’s law provides an exception.)
This is not an issue when the tangible document requires an acknowledgment. The remotely located signer would sign the tangible document, send it to the remote online notary, and then would acknowledge their signature on the tangible document during the remote online notarization’s audio-visual communication session. The notary would complete the notarial certificate on the tangible document and return the document to the remotely located individual. (Remember that only certain states authorizing remote online notarization also allow it for notarization of a tangible document.)
Because the mortgage loan industry has most avidly embraced remote online notarization, the notarial act frequently performed by a remote online notary is an acknowledgment related to execution of a mortgage loan document. To serve a growing industry centered on creation and execution of electronic wills, remote online notaries in multiple states may also officiate, as specified by governing law, for notarial acts related to wills (primarily self-proving affidavits).
4. Identifying Remotely Located Signers. The requirement to identify remotely located signers, who cannot hand the remote online notary an identification credential that the notary can examine and touch, is met by the most time-tested methods of signer identity and by modern, technological methods.
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*NOTE: Identification requirements for remotely located signers, where remote online notarization is authorized, are unique to each enacting state. The following information is meant to impart only a general understanding of this subject.
• Personal knowledge or credible witness. In most all states that have enacted remote online notarization, the methods for a notary to identify a remotely located principal signer include personal knowledge. Some enacting states also allow the notary to rely on a credible witness who personally knows the signer, subject to specific state requirements for use of a credible witness to identify a remotely located signer.
In addition to personal knowledge or use of a credible witness (where allowed), most states that have enacted remote online notarization specify certain technological methods of identification that must be used to identify a remotely located signer. These are:
• “Identity proofing.” This broad term’s meaning includes a real-time, online process requiring the remotely located signer to successfully answer random, dynamically generated questions based on the signer’s personal-history data, held by public and private sources. This method of identity authentication is in wide use today for purposes besides performance of an online notarial act, usually when parties need credible assurance that a person engaging in an online process is who he or she claims to be. Biometric verification is another identity proofing method.
• “Remote presentation and credential analysis.” Generally, these terms mean the remotely located signer’s presentation to the notary, on camera, of an identification credential that the notary would accept if performing a face-to-face notarization. The audio/visual communications technology must be of sufficient resolution and clarity to allow the notary to visually inspect the credential. In addition to the notary’s visual inspection, special software scans the image of the credential, and verifies attributes that indicate it is a validly issued identification document.
5. Certificate of Remote Online Notarial Act. Most enacting states require that the notarial certificate for a remote online notarial act include an indication that the notarization was performed remotely/online. Some require specific certificate wording for a remote online act. Otherwise, a remote online notary would use the same certificate formats required for physical-presence notarial acts performed on paper and other electronic documents.
6. Recordkeeping of Remote Online Notarial Acts. States authorizing remote online notarizations require a remote online notary public to maintain a record of each notarization performed for remotely located signers.
As with identification requirements, the requirements for remote online notarization recordkeeping vary among the enacting states but can be generalized, as follows.
Records to be kept are:
1) Details of each remote online notarial act performed. These details generally correlate to the information typically captured in a tangible (paper) journal record.
2) A recording of every remote online notarial act’s complete audio/visual communication session.
3) Additional specified information (depending on the enacting state) that is entered in the record by the remote online notary, or that is verbally recited by the remotely located signer or the notary and captured in the audio/video communication session recording.
Records of remote online notarial acts must be stored for a specified length of time (depending on the enacting state), and must be secure from unauthorized access or theft.
Records of remote online notarial acts usually are created in an electronic medium, must be tamper-evident (created using a technology that can show evidence of changes made to the record or entries), and must be capable upon request of producing a record of a particular notarial act or acts, as is customary for records retained in a paper journal.
7. National Remote Online Notarization Standards. In July 2017, the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) determined that, in support of the advancement of secure electronic commerce and notarization’s role in that objective, it should convene a task force to create minimum standards for performance of remote online notarial acts. This task force, composed of stakeholders representing a broad base of governmental and private interests, worked for the next seven months to assess the state of electronic notarization across America, understand the issues associated with remote online electronic notarization, and compose technology-neutral, minimum standards for notarizations performed in this manner.
In February 2018, NASS’ member Secretaries of State approved the Task Force’s recommended remote online electronic notarization standards. Those standards were incorporated into NASS’ Revised National Electronic Notarization Standards and have served as a valuable resource for states either exploring or actively pursuing authorization of remote online notarization in their jurisdiction. The Standards were most recently updated and renewed in 2023.
Copyright, American Society of Notaries 2026
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