Fees
$15 per signature is the maximum a notary may charge.
This is a ceiling, not a set price. A notary may charge less, or nothing at all. It applies per notarized signature.
Cal. Gov. Code §8211
Cross-checked · 2026 CA Notary Public Handbook
State Notary Laws
Notary law, by the letter. Every claim cited to its statute.
Fees, rules and requirements for every state, published only after we've checked each fact against the statute and the state's own official notary source. If we can't cite it, we don't publish it.
California, Colorado, Delaware, New York, Oregon and Texas are live. More follow as each state's facts finish verification.
California
Guide liveVerified facts · statute + 2026 Notary Public Handbook
Fees · Travel
Travel fees are not capped by statute and are recorded separately.
The $15 cap covers the notarial act itself. Travel is a separate charge and gets its own line in the journal.
Cal. Gov. Code §8211
Cross-checked · 2026 CA Notary Public Handbook
Fees · Free acts
Two notarizations must be free: a veteran's benefit claim, and vote-by-mail or other voting materials.
Those are the two that apply to any notary. Three narrower exceptions exist, and two of them turn on who the notary is rather than what the act is.
Cal. Gov. Code §8211(d), (f); §6107
Cross-checked · 2026 CA Notary Public Handbook
Acts · Jurat
A jurat must be signed in the notary's presence.
This presence rule applies to jurats specifically. Acknowledgments follow their own rules.
Cal. Gov. Code §8202
Cross-checked · 2026 CA Notary Public Handbook
Identification
A signer without ID can be identified by credible witnesses.
If one credible witness is used, the notary must personally know them. If two are used, each just needs to present their own ID.
Cal. Civ. Code §1185(b)
Cross-checked · 2026 CA Notary Public Handbook
Journal
A power of attorney requires the signer's thumbprint in the journal.
One of the journal entries California specifically requires for powers of attorney and certain deeds.
Cal. Gov. Code §8206(a)(2)(G)
Cross-checked · 2026 CA Notary Public Handbook
Online Notarization
California signers may use online notaries commissioned in other states.
California's own remote online notarization won't operate until the Secretary of State certifies its technology. Until then, online notarizations performed by notaries in other states are recognized here.
Cal. Gov. Code §8232.1
Cross-checked · 2026 CA Notary Public Handbook
Apostille
Apostilles are issued by the California Secretary of State.
The notary handles the notarization. The apostille itself comes from the Secretary of State's office.
CA Secretary of State
Cross-checked · CA Secretary of State, Request an Apostille
Apostille · Cost
An apostille costs $20 per document from the Secretary of State, separate from anything the notary charged.
In person there's also a $6 handling fee for each different public official's signature. The notary's own fee is separate from both.
California Secretary of State
Cross-checked · CA SOS Apostille FAQs (worked fee examples)
Becoming a notary
You must be 18, a California resident, complete a six-hour course approved by the Secretary of State, and pass the state exam.
The course only counts if the Secretary of State approved that vendor. After the commission issues you have 30 days to file the oath and a $15,000 bond with your county clerk — until then it isn't in effect.
Cal. Gov. Code §8201(a); §8204; §8212; §8213(a)
Cross-checked · 2026 CA Notary Public Handbook
Complaints
If the notarial portion exceeds the cap, the Secretary of State is who takes complaints about California notaries.
The Secretary of State disciplines notaries — it can't recover your money or undo a document. Fraud or forgery goes to local law enforcement or the district attorney instead.
Cal. Gov. Code §8214.1; §8220
Cross-checked · 2026 CA Notary Public Handbook; CA SOS complaint process
More in verification
Acknowledgment rules · seal specifications · E&O coverage
Each fact joins this guide once it clears verification: the statute first, then the cross-check against the state's own official source.
Pending citation
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Every listing sourced from the Secretary of State's roster.
Find a California notaryAll fifty states, honestly labeled
Your state's guide, as soon as it's verified.
We'd rather show you an honest status than a guess. The states where we already publish the official notary roster are next in line.
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- CaliforniaGuide live
- ColoradoGuide live
- DelawareGuide live
- New YorkGuide live
- OregonGuide live
- TexasGuide live
50 other jurisdictionsPipelineQueued
Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming
One template, fifty states
Every state guide answers the same eight questions.
A signer in Sacramento and a notary in Austin read the law in the same layout, so comparing two states is as simple as reading the same section twice.
A
Fees
What a notary may charge for each act, and what sits outside the cap.
B
Notarial acts
Acknowledgments, jurats, oaths and certified copies, and what each one certifies.
C
Signer ID
Acceptable identification and the paths when ID is missing.
D
Journal & seal
What must be recorded, and when special entries apply.
E
Online (RON)
Whether remote online notarization is operative, and for whom.
F
Apostille
Who issues it and how documents get authenticated for use abroad.
G
Becoming a notary
Eligibility, steps, costs and timeline to a commission.
H
Complaints
Who regulates the notary, where a complaint goes, and what that office cannot do for you.
How a fact gets on this page
Slower to publish. Safe to rely on.
Most notary-law pages online are rewrites of other people's rewrites, with no sources and no date. Ours follow one rule: no citation, no claim.
Step one
Statute first
Every claim starts at the primary source: the state's own code, section by section. Not a blog, not an aggregator, and never AI-generated text.
Step two
Second-source cross-check
We then check the claim against the state's own current official source — a notary handbook where the state publishes one, the Secretary of State's own pages where it doesn't — and date the check. If the statute and that source disagree, we hold the fact until they don't.
Step three
Precision notes
Each fact also records what it does not mean, because over-generalizing is how other guides go wrong. A rule about jurats stays a rule about jurats.
Straight answer · What these guides are
Reference, not legal advice.
These guides explain how notarization works: the fees, the acts, the process. They won't tell you which document your situation needs, and neither will any notary. Notaries public are not attorneys and cannot give legal or immigration advice. For that, talk to a lawyer.
The same rule that governs our directory governs these pages: we publish what the state publishes, cite it, and stop there.
Questions, answered
Before you ask
Which states come first?
The states where we already publish the Secretary of State's roster: California, Colorado, Delaware, New York, Oregon and Texas. Every one of them has a guide live.
Why isn't my state's fee listed yet?
Because we haven't finished verifying it against the statute and your state's own official source, and we won't publish a number until we have. A wrong fee on a law page is worse than no page at all. Your state's tile flips the day its guide clears.
How current is this?
Every fact shows its citation and the source it was checked against, with its edition where the state publishes one. When a state updates its law or that source, we re-verify the affected facts before the guide changes.
Can you tell me which document I need notarized?
No. That's a legal question, and answering it would mean giving legal advice, which neither we nor any notary can do. What we can do is walk you through how notarizing a document works once you have it, and connect you with a notary.
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