Remote Online Notarization

What is remote online notarization?

Remote online notarization is a notarial act in which the signer appears before a commissioned notary over live, recorded audio-video instead of in the same room. The notary verifies the signer's identity, watches the signature happen, applies an electronic notarial seal, and keeps a recording of the session. Everything a traditional notarization produces — an acknowledgment or jurat, a seal, a journal entry — a remote online notarization produces too.

The authority behind the act comes from one place: the notary's commission. A notary is commissioned by a single state, and that state's law is what authorizes them to notarize remotely. The National Association of Secretaries of State reports that "47 states and the District of Columbia have a law that allows for remote e-notarization" (retrieved August 8, 2026). You can see which states authorize RON, state by state.

Which state's law governs when the signer and the notary are in different states?

The notary's commissioning state governs. A notary performs the act under the law of the state that commissioned them, and RON statutes are written on the assumption that the signer may be somewhere else — that is the entire point of the technology. This is why USA Notary serves signers in all 50 states, including states that have not authorized their own notaries to notarize remotely: the signer's location is not what the statute regulates.

Your own state's rules still matter for a different question — whether an institution in your state accepts the finished document. That is a separate gate, and it is covered in the recorder and court section below.

Can a notary commissioned in a non-RON state perform one?

No. A notary commissioned in a state that has not authorized remote online notarization cannot perform one, because their commission does not carry that authority — and in most states a separate registration as an online notary is required on top of the ordinary commission. A notary who notarizes over video without that authorization has not performed a valid notarial act, whatever the technology showed on screen.

For signers this is invisible: the platform routes your session to a notary who holds the authorization. For notaries it is the whole career question — see how to get commissioned in your state and how the online registration sits on top of it.

How does RON differ from a traditional in-person notarization?

Both produce a legally valid notarial act. The difference is how the signer appears before the notary, and what evidence the process leaves behind afterwards.

Which documents can't be notarized online?

Two different rules exclude documents from remote online notarization, and they are worth keeping apart — the binding limit is usually the receiving party's acceptance policy, not the state's RON statute. Far more documents are legally eligible for RON than are practically accepted by the institution at the other end.

Which documents does the law exclude?

Federal law draws the first line. The ESIGN Act's electronic-records rules do not apply to several categories of document, listed at 15 U.S.C. § 7003(a) (retrieved August 8, 2026):

• Law "governing the creation and execution of wills, codicils, or testamentary trusts."
• State law "governing adoption, divorce, or other matters of family law."
• The Uniform Commercial Code as in effect in any state, "other than sections 1–107 and 1–206 and Articles 2 and 2A."

State law draws the second. Individual RON statutes carve out their own exclusions on top of the federal ones, and the carve-outs differ — which is why a document a notary in one state may handle remotely may be off-limits a state line away. Wills are the case that catches people out most often; our guide to whether a will can be notarized online works through what is actually permitted, and whether a will needs to be notarized at all answers the question behind it.

Which documents does the recipient commonly reject even when RON is legal?

The second gate is the one nobody warns you about: a bank, a lender, a foreign consulate, a registrar, or a title underwriter can insist on a wet-ink notarization even where state law plainly authorizes the remote one. That is a policy decision on their side, not a legal defect on yours — but it produces the same outcome, which is a document that comes back.

The categories where a receiving party most often sets its own rule:

• Documents going overseas. An apostille chain, a foreign ministry, or an embassy may require an original paper notarization — see what an apostille is.
• Bank and brokerage forms. Some institutions require their own notary or a medallion signature guarantee, which is not a notarization at all. Ask first — will my bank accept an online notarization?
• Loan packages. The lender and the title underwriter both have to approve a remote closing before it is scheduled — see real estate notarization.

One question asked before the session saves the whole thing: do you accept a remotely notarized document? The full list of what USA Notary handles is on the online notarization services page.

What happens to your notarized document if the notary's commission is later revoked, or the platform shuts down?

The notarization stands. A notarial act is judged by whether the notary held a valid commission at the moment the act was performed — a commission that expires or is revoked afterwards does not reach back and undo notarizations already completed. This is the same rule that governs paper notarizations, and it is why the date on the certificate matters.

What a challenge years later needs is evidence, and this is where a remote online notarization is in a stronger position than a paper one. A paper notarization leaves a line in a journal a stranger now controls. A remote session leaves the video, the identity-verification results, and the timestamped audit trail. On USA Notary, the audio-video recording and the electronic journal are retained for 10 years, or longer where state law requires — the state-floor caveat matters because some statutes set their own minimums above that.

Bank-level encryption and secure data transmission protect that evidence, and every document, for as long as it is held — how we handle security and privacy sets out the controls in full.

Keep your own copy of the sealed document regardless: it is the tamper-evident artifact, and it does not depend on anyone's retention schedule. How USA Notary handles retention and compliance sets out what is kept and for how long, and whether a notarized document expires answers the question underneath this one.

Is a RON notarization accepted everywhere in the U.S.?

A properly performed remote online notarization is a valid notarial act, and USA Notary's consumer service reaches signers in all 50 states — including states whose own notaries cannot yet notarize remotely, because the notary's commissioning state is what governs. The map below is built from this site's own state-by-state research, not from a headline count.

Acceptance by the party receiving the document is the separate gate covered above. Notarizing on behalf of an organization? USA Notary supports title, legal, financial and healthcare teams.

Frequently Asked Questions