Can you notarize online?

With the advent of tech and mainstream digitalization, electronic signatures have become a new standard. Besides, online notarization offers an added convenience and flexibility that people ordinarily cannot find in the traditional style of notarizing.

Once you start to notarize documents online – you’ll never want to deal with the frustration of notarizing documents in-person. It is vital to note that remote online notarization didn’t become popular and practical overnight. It took some time and learning for a lot of users to embrace remote online notarization. However, there are still many people and businesses that are not aware of the full extent of benefits attached to notarization.

With remote online notarization, the entire notarizing experience becomes seamless and effortless. On top of making business processes highly efficient and transforming customer experience, notarizing documents online mitigates potential fraud and makes the notarization process transparent. It is no wonder most states have adopted remote online notarization.

Can you notarize online?

In short, yes. RON or remote online notarization is the answer to,” can you notarize online.” In fact, you can notarize a wide range of legal and financial documents online. It all started when New Jersey Governor Murphy took the initiative to adopt RON legislation. The new law gives people the remote option to notarize documents physically or electronically.

Mechanics of Remote Online Notarization

There’s no rocket science to remote online notarization. RON notarizes documents remotely using a modern electronic signature, audio-visual communication, identity verification, and record-based technology. And when these combined technologies work in tandem, it makes notarizing documents online a walk in the park. It allows people to save valuable time and resources.

In RON, the signer and the public notary work out the process online using smart devices. What’s interesting is that the notary public and the signer can be at any specific location at the time of verification and signing.

However, to perform online notarization, the public notary agent needs a proper notary’s license. An online notary agent also needs dedicated training to understand the legal matters and essential requirements.

To use an online notarization service, you just need to sign up on a remote online notarization platform like PandaDoc Notary. Once you request an appointment to notarize a document – you’ll get in touch with an online notary agent.

Benefits of RON

Convenient

One of the hallmark aspects of notarizing documents online is that it saves people valuable time and makes the entire notarization process seamless. RON also makes sense if you don’t have the time to get in touch with a public notary in person.

Cost-effective

Notarizing documents online cuts out conventional costs and has become the most affordable way to notarize a wide range of documents. On average, you won’t have to pay more than $20-$25 to notarize a document online.

Fast and Reliable

In comparison, notarizing documents online is way faster than the traditional in-person notarization process. On average, an online notarization session takes twenty minutes tops. It makes processing and notarizing documents easier and allows you to move on to more crucial tasks in your personal and professional life.

Top-Tier Security

Online notarization is a highly safe and secure process and minimizes the potential risk of fraud. A remote online notarization platform like PandaDoc Notary has robust security protocols and uses advanced encryption to protect user privacy. It means you can notarize documents online without having to leave your home.

What documents can you notarize online?

When dealing with online notarization vs electronic notarization, make sure you have a clear understanding of the documents you can notarize online. No matter what industry you operate in – you can notarize a variety of legal and financial documents.

You can look at RON as a process of notarizing and signing documents efficiently. The service sector in retail can use applications and platforms to notarize documents online. Mostly, remote online notarization works wonders for insurance, law, financial services, health, and government-based enterprises.

Today, financial services and insurance firms can validate and confirm transactions through remote online notarization. In fact, notarizing eligible financial documents via RON has made things easier for companies. Whether it’s power of attorney, establishing trusts, or car title transfers, RON speeds up the notarization process.

In legal services, law firms can use an online notary service or platform to streamline and expedite documents more efficiently. For instance, law firms can notarize motions and affidavits online. Legal documents like deeds that involve ownership transfers can also go through remote online notarization. Lastly, local and state governments can use remote online notarization in a variety of ways.

For instance, officials can notarize the transfer of private or public property and remotely notarize quitclaim deeds. Similarly, people can remotely notarize child custody documents. Realistically, there are many use cases of remote online notarization that span across industries.

Depending on the circumstances, remote notarization is perfect for industries to notarize HR documents, incumbency certificates, rental agreements, internal corporate documents, business services, and real estate transactions.

What states allow online notarization?

There are many states that allow remote online notarization. You can take advantage of remote online notarization in more than a few states. In fact, over 40 states now allow remote online notarization. Virginia was the leading state that passed the legislation and paved the way for other states to roll out remote online notarization legislation.

Here is a list of states where you can notarize documents online:

• Wisconsin
• Wyoming
• Washington
• West Virginia
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Texas
• Utah
• South Dakota
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Oklahoma
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• Minnesota
• Montana
• Kentucky
• Michigan
• Kansas
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Florida
• Hawaii
• Arkansas
• Colorado
• Alaska
• Arizona

Now, there are some states left that allow remote online notarization temporarily. These states include Alabama, Georgia, Maine, Mississippi, and Rhode Island. On the flip side, take into account that states like Connecticut, California, Delaware, and Massachusetts don’t allow the notarization of documents online and have to pass RON legislation.

In the end, remember that each state has separate rules and regulations around remote online notarization. And the best course of action for people and companies is to verify the current requirements to notarize documents online.

Are online notarizations valid and enforceable?

If you notarize documents online in states that have put in place legislation, then those agreements are legally valid and enforceable. Even in states with provision rules of online notarization, you can validate, confirm, and enforce agreements.

The validity of remote online notarization works as long as one state’s RON status complements others. But despite the use case, check whether or not your state allows remote online notarization. If you can’t determine the status or find new information, reach out to a legal advisor to find out the state’s current RON status and requirements.

How to notarize documents online?

Depending on the state, the criteria to notarize documents online can vary. But most states have the following jurisdictional process to notarize documents online:

Step 1

The signer reaches out to an online notary agent to get a document notarized. If you’re using an online notary platform like PandaDoc Notary, you can get connected to with a virtual notary agent.

Step 2

Next, the signer sends the document that requires notarization to the online notary agent. You can just upload the documents online in a PDF format and move forward with the notarization process.

Step 3

After that, the online public notary agent screens the identity of the signer and cross-references requirements. At this point, the notary agent also asks some Knowledge Based Authentication  (KBA) questions and runs a credential analysis to ensure the signer is legit and documents are valid.

Step 4

When it comes to notarizing documents online, the signer and the online notary agent have to communicate through an audiovisual solution. After all, the whole idea of RON is to cut out the face-to-face meeting between the signer and the notary agent.

Step 5

Once the online notary agent verifies the identity of the signer and confirms notarization requirements, the signer can sign the respective document so that the notary agent can make the final seal. But when you’re dealing with a digital notary stamp, a notary public agent makes an electronic signature that works as an official notary’s seal.

Step 6

When it comes to RON, the notary retains video and audio recordings of the entire notarization session. The idea is to keep a digital journal record for the online notary’s records and future reference.

Step 7

Ultimately, an online notarized document is sent to the principal or the signer. You can save the online notarized document and make a copy for your records right away.

Summing up 

It is crucial to understand that RON has been around for some time. You can expect RON to continue to become mainstream and allow people to notarize documents online with more ease. Since the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, remote online notarization has had a significant push.

While there are no more lockdowns and social distancing rules, many people now prefer notarizing documents online over a lengthy in-person notarization process. Most states now put in place RON legislation so that people can notarize documents online like in person.

Traditionally, if you’ve had the chance to notarize a document – you know how difficult the process can be. The truth is that people no longer want to deal with collecting a lot of papers, driving around the city, and waiting hours in line.

With remote online notarization, people can speed up their notarization process and cut out most traditional elements of notarizing documents. In retrospect, don’t make the mistake of seeing online notarizing or remote notarizing as a passing trend. Instead, realize and recognize that remote online notarization is here to stay for good.

Notarize documents online with PandaDoc Notary

Ordinarily, using and leveraging remote online notarization may seem overwhelming. But platforms like PandaDoc Notary make it easier for people to understand, navigate, and follow through with notarizing documents online. The PandaDoc Notary platform makes allows signers and dedicated state notaries to communicate online through an audio-visual secure connection.

Once you schedule an appointment and get in touch with an online public notary agent, you’re good to go. it’s a platform like PandaDoc Notary that continue to make notarizing documents online more accessible to people across the United States.

Using the PandaDoc Notary platform, you can notarize documents in a matter of minutes. Gone are the days of having to wait hours or sometimes even days to complete the notarization of documents. The PandaDoc Notary platform allows you to notarize electronic and digital documents within the same day.

PandaDoc Notary is a highly secure, efficient, transparent, and reliable platform to notarize documents online. The remote online notarization platform also comes with impressive built-in features that make notarizing documents effortlessly.

On PandaDoc Notary, you’ll realize instantly how RON makes it easier for average users to notarize documents. It’s a more personalized and direct approach to notarizing documents than in-person notarization. Most importantly, finding an online notary agent on the platform is faster than finding a public notary in person.  

Get your legal and financial documents notarized online through the PandaDoc Notary platform and reap many short-term and long-term benefits. 

FAQs

Can you notarize any agreement online?

In most states, people have the authority and legal right to notarize the majority of documents online. It is up to the person to notarize an agreement remotely or in person. Some states that have adopted RON have restrictions about remote notarization on some estate documents like wills.

Over time, there are more and more state-level authorizations for remote notarization of similar documents. But before you decide to notarize a specific estate, legal, or financial document in your state, reach out to a legal advisor or consultant so you can paint a clear picture.

Does it matter where signers are located when remotely notarizing an agreement?

Many states now have managed to implement RON laws, while some states have put in place provisional rules to make online notarizing work for specific purposes. It means different states have a different set of rules and you have to meet those specific RON requirements before you can notarize a piece document from a particular location.

The validity of RON won’t come into question as long as it is on par with the law and has public and state recognition. In some cases, there are exceptions, but this applies to special organizational agreements. Depending on the use case, make sure to confirm your RON applicability.